Tag: nannies
A Manhattan prosecutor could face criminal charges after he and his wife allegedly videotaped their nanny undressing and showering in their bathroom
The nanny’s lawyer said a grand jury could soon hear evidence against the husband, Matthew Seltzer, 35, including possible felony charges of unlawful surveillance, attempted unlawful surveillance and falsification of business records.
“I am glad to see the District Attorney’s office finally moving forward with some semblance of justice,” said attorney Vincent White, noting that Brooklyn prosecutors told him they would present the case to a grand jury within four to six weeks.
Seltzer is married to Lauren Angelo-Seltzer, a Manhattan DA assistant.
Vanessa Rivas, 23, claims she caught the couple red-handed in January 2018 just as she was about to disrobe and shower at their StuyTown apartment.
She told The Post that she spotted the hidden camera, disguised to look like a black iPhone charger.
“I noticed a glare, and I was just like, wait this is odd, so I pulled it out of the socket, and the last video is me looking at it like, ‘What is this?’”
When she confronted Angelo-Seltzer, the ADA denied any knowledge of the camera — then used her law enforcement connections to try to intimidate the young care giver, Rivas claims.
The prosecutor summoned cops from the 13th Precinct, who threatened to arrest Rivas if she didn’t hand over the camera’s memory card, the nanny says. When she refused, officers let her go.
Then Angelo-Seltzer’s mom, former Manhattan Criminal Court judge Eileen Koretz, offered to pay Rivas for lost earnings after she’d quit her nanny gig if Rivas agreed to “end this.”
Instead, Rivas filed a police report and hired White to file a civil case against the couple.
Koretz, a judicial hearing officer, has since resigned from that post amid a probe by the state court inspector general, which is looking into whether the ex-judge meddled in the case, according to a court spokesman.
“I resigned solely for personal reasons and to spend more time with my family,” Koretz said in an email to The Post when asked if her departure was related to Rivas’ claims.
But court IG Sherrill Spatz launched her probe in January after The Post reported on the lawsuit. Koretz resigned in April, before the probe was completed, according to state court spokesperson Lucian Chalfen.
Rivas declined to drop the charges in an early deal offered to Seltzer by Brooklyn prosecutors, who are handling the case to avoid a conflict of interest, according to White of White, Hilferty and Albanese.
He said prosecutors revealed that Seltzer tried to alter his credit card statements to hide the camera purchase, leading to the possible falsification of business records charge, White claims.
Court documents show that Seltzer and Angelo-Seltzer have hired separate attorneys.
If convicted, Seltzer faces four to seven years in prison and could have to register as a sex offender.
Seltzer and his attorney could not be reached for comment.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/06/01/man-could-face-7-years-in-prison-if-convicted-in-nanny-spycam-case/
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Angel Chevrestt
Upscale eatery boss treated her like property, forcing her to call him “boss man,’’ sleep in the pool shed and even unclog the family’s toilet: Nanny Lawsuit
A manager at the tony Upper East Side eatery Scarpetta treated his kid’s nanny like a slave — forcing her to call him “boss man,’’ sleep in the pool shed and even unclog the family’s toilet, a new lawsuit alleges.
Cindy Carter lived in “modern-day indentured servitude’’ and was “treated like property” by assistant manager James Ragonese and his wife, Nicole, according to the Brooklyn federal-court suit.
“It hurt so bad I cried,’’ Carter told The Post. “I didn’t know what to do.’’
The 44-year-old was paid a pittance — about $300 a week while toiling 71 to 120 hours weekly between March 2016 and this past February, when she was fired, according to the complaint and her lawyer, Justin Marino.
While James Ragonese works at the high-end eatery — which features such dishes as Wagyu strip with truffled spinach — Carter “was typically offered only leftovers,’’ the suit says.
She also “was prohibited from cooking food when Defendants’ were home (because, as Nicole Ragonese stated, “Caribbean food is disgusting”),” the papers state.
Meanwhile, Carter was required “to perform duties completely unrelated to being a nanny, such as plunging a toilet,” the suit says.
The nanny “spent her entire day either taking care of Defendants’ child (cleaning, feeding, monitoring, entertaining, etc.), cleaning the house, weeding the lawn and flower beds, watering the lawn during the Summer (as Defendants did not have a sprinkler system), doing laundry, or otherwise responding to Defendants’ every whim,” the 16-page document states.
Carter first lived in the family’s attic and then in the basement of their home in Williston Park, LI, she says.
The family moved to a new home in Port Washington in October 2018, where Carter was given a bedroom on the second floor — though the lawsuit claims they began constructing yet another basement room just for her.
When her bosses went to the Hamptons to have fun in the summer, she was taken along — only to be stashed in an unventilated storage room where pool chemicals were kept, she says.
“Nicole Ragonese said she could ‘leave the door open,’ ” the suit reads.
The Ragoneses’s lawyer, Dustin Levine, said Carter’s lawsuit is in retaliation for the couple having her arrested for keying their car. She’s now facing misconduct charges for the incident.
“I think they’re completely exaggerated and unfounded,” Levine said of the lawsuit’s claims, adding that his clients paid for Carter’s hotel stay after her arrest because they didn’t want her to be homeless.
“She lived in their home, they treated her as family.”
Carter’s lawyer, Marino, said that before his client’s arrest, Carter had called the police herself after a male Ragonese relative allegedly made inappropriate comments to her.
Carter — who is currently in a homeless shelter — is suing for alleged violations of state and federal wage provisions and noncompliance with notice/record-keeping requirements, among other things.
She’s requesting various damages, plus an award of unpaid wages for overtime with interest.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/07/upscale-eatery-boss-treated-me-like-property-nanny-lawsuit/