NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Staten Island dad has been sued for allegedly secretly filming a live-in nanny he hired from Colombia — and attempting to break down her bedroom door in a fury when she discovered the hidden camera.
The nanny, Kelly Andrade, 25, has accused Michael Esposito, 35, of recording hundreds of videos of her in her bedroom of his family’s Tottenville home with a camera he placed in a fire detector-like device on her ceiling, according to court papers.
Andrade, who trained hundreds of hours to be hired by an au pair program called Cultural Care Au Pair, was placed with Esposito’s home with his wife and four young children in early March.
Early on, said she came across Esposito in her room adjusting the placement of the device on her ceiling.
After a few weeks on the job, on March 23, Andrade noticed the device was “constantly being repositioned” and took it down to examine it, according to her lawsuit. She then discovered a camera with an external disk full of “hundreds” of videos of her, the suit claims.
“Immediately” after her discovery, Esposito “unexpectedly appeared at his home and nervously attempted to coax” Andrade out of the home, the lawsuit reads.
After Andrade ran to her room, Esposito allegedly became incensed and attempted to “violently” break down her door, she claims. Andrade, panicked, jumped out of her bedroom window to flee, leaving her belongings back in her room.
She then went to the police with the smoke detector, camera and memory stick; Esposito was arrested the next day and charged with one count of Felony Unlawful Surveillance.
“I felt very afraid,” Andrade told the New York Post. “On top of what had just happened, now I don’t have a place to stay, I’m in a completely unknown country, I’m alone. I don’t have any money, I don’t know what I’m going to eat, I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow.”
Andrade also claimed that Cultural Care Au Pair did nothing to help or support her after the incident, which left her “extremely humiliated, degraded, victimized, embarrassed, and emotionally distressed,” according to her lawsuit.
Michael Esposito’s lawyer told the Staten Island Advance after his arrest that the camera was installed for security purposes.
Andrade is suing both the Espositos and Cultural Care Au Pair for unspecified damages.
“As alleged, the Espositos surreptitiously placed a camera in Ms. Andrade’s bedroom – her private sanctuary – and recorded her without her knowledge or consent,” said Zachary Holzberg, in a statement.
“We are seeking a substantial sum that will not only compensate Ms. Andrade for this egregious and unsettling violation, but also to punish and deter others from recording individuals in private situations.