NEW YORK (AP) — A jury has awarded $2.78 million to an au pair whose employer used a hidden camera to videotape her while she slept in their New York City home.
The jury in Brooklyn federal court ordered Michael and Danielle Esposito to pay Kelly Andrade $780,000 for emotional distress and $2 million in punitive damages for the camera that Michael Esposito had placed over Andrade’s bed after she moved in to their Staten Island home to care for their four children.
The Sept. 12 civil verdict resolved the lawsuit Andrade filed in 2021 against the Espositos. She settled earlier with the agency that had placed her with the couple, Massachusetts-based Cultural Care Au Pair, for an undisclosed sum.
According to court papers, Andrade was living in Colombia when she signed a contract with Cultural Care in 2020. In order to move to the United States and secure an au pair placement, Andrade had to pay a fee, take courses in child care and accrue 200 hours of child care experience.
After completing the training, Andrade moved to the United States in March 2021 and was placed in the Espositos’ home, where she was given a bedroom, her lawsuit said.
Andrade noticed over the next few weeks that the smoke detector over her bed was constantly being repositioned.
She examined the smoke detector and found a hidden camera with a memory card that contained hundreds of recordings of her nude or getting dressed and undressed, the lawsuit said.
Andrade “did not have knowledge of the surveillance device and did not give the defendant permission or authority to record her in any way,” according to the lawsuit.
Immediately after Andrade discovered the hidden camera, Michael Esposito arrived home and tried to get her to leave the house, the lawsuit said. She locked herself inside the bedroom. He tried to break the door down, and she escaped through a window, went to the police and filed a complaint against the Espositos.
Michael Esposito was arrested but avoided jail time by pleading guilty to a second-degree felony charge of unlawful surveillance. After completing one year of counseling, he was allowed to withdraw his felony plea and plead to a misdemeanor charge of attempted unlawful surveillance.
Andrade, who is now 28 and living in New Jersey, believes that justice was not served in the criminal case, as Esposito “only received probation and was able to continue living his life,” an attorney for Andrade, Johnmack Cohen, said in an email.
But she is happy with the civil verdict, Cohen said.
“We hope that Ms. Andrade’s case will inspire other sexual harassment victims to speak up and seek justice as Ms. Andrade was able to do,” he added.
A lawyer for the Espositos, Michael Gervasi, said the pair “are exploring all post-verdict options, including an appeal.”
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