Hollywood Lawyer, Wife Sentenced in Domestic Slavery Case
Former Sony Pictures VP of legal affairs James Jackson and his wife were sentenced Monday for holding their live-in maid in forced labor.
Jackson received 200 hours of community service and fined $5,000, while his wife Elizabeth was sentenced to three years in prison, according to the Los Angeles Times and a press release.
The couple was sentenced in federal court after pleading guilty to their respective charges in harboring and holding of Nena Ruiz, a Filipino domestic worker whose visa expired.
The Times reports that Elizabeth Jackson brought Ruiz to her home in Culver City in 2001. She reportedly confiscated Ruiz’s passport and forced her to work 16-hour days, with no time off, for $400 a month.
“These defendants used their power and affluence to coerce a vulnerable woman into their personal service for several months,” Grace Chung Becker, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, is quoted saying.
Forced-labor charges against James Jackson were dropped by federal prosecutors.
The Justice Department notes in its release that in the last seven years, it has increased by nearly seven-fold the number of human trafficking cases filed in court. Last year, the DOJ says it obtained a record number of convictions in such cases.
