Why doesn't Michael Moore pursue his friends w/ as much zeal as he pursues other causes? Apparently, he wouldn't even need to lie.
<a href='http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10584456%255E1702,00.html' target='_blank'>News from Australian paper</a>
Award for Hollywood exec's 'slave'
From correspondents in Los Angeles
August 27, 2004
A CALIFORNIAN jury has awarded $US551,000 ($780,000) in damages to a Filipina immigrant who claimed she was kept as a domestic slave for a year by a Hollywood movie executive.
Former schoolteacher Nena Ruiz testified in a civil trial that James Jackson, Sony Pictures Entertainment's vice president of legal affairs, and his wife refused to allow her leave their employ, paid her a pittance and made her sleep in a dog's bed.
"We're very pleased," said Dan Stormer, a lawyer who represented Ruiz at the trial in the Los Angeles area of Santa Monica.
"This will send a message to all employers that they cannot exploit workers. Juries will have no hesitation in finding them liable for their bad deeds."
Movie studio boss Jackson denied the allegations during the trial, telling the jury that he and his wife, Elizabeth, tried to send 61-year-old Ruiz, back to the Philippines several times but that she begged to stay.
He testified that Ruiz had come to America to care for his mother-in-law, who suffers from lymphoma, but said the couple took her in in February 2001 after her original job did not work out.
Jackson's attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ruiz told the court she had wanted to go home but that the Jacksons forced her to stay and threatened to notify a law enforcement agency if she left, the Daily Journal newspaper reported.
She also alleged the couple made her sleep in a bed designed for a dog, paid her $US300 for an entire year's work and locked up her passport, the paper reported earlier in the trial.
US federal prosecutors said earlier this month that a criminal investigation into the claims by Ruiz was underway.
Mr Stormer said the Los Angeles Superior Court jury decided in his client's favour on all of her claims, including involuntary servitude, false imprisonment, invasion of privacy, negligence and wage violations.
Of the total financial award made to Ruiz, $US275,000 was to compensate her for the Jacksons' failure to pay her adequately for her services, MrStormer said.
The jury is scheduled to begin deliberating on whether to award any punitive damages today.
