Well, we have another nanny scandal in California. Meg Whitman’s former nanny and housekeeper, Nicky Diaz Santillan, now represented by Gloria Allred, says she worked for Whitman for nine years, during which she was “exploited, disrespected, and humiliated.” Her story: she was hired in 2000 and was never asked if she was here illegally. But she claims Whitman knew her status and received multiple letters from the Social Security Administration asking about it, none of which she responded to. Instead, she told Diaz to “check on this” but never did anything further. Then, in June 2009, when Diaz asked Whitman to help her legalize her status, she was fired. She believes it was because Whitman had announced her run for governor and could no longer afford to employ an undocumented worker.
Ben Smith reports that Whitman agrees on the broad outlines of the story, but says she was deceived by Diaz and never knew her status. She fired Diaz only after she found out. So far this story is pretty sketchy on both sides, so stay tuned.
Diaz’s actual legal claim, by the way, is for wages that she claims she wasn’t paid during her employment. Obviously, though, the damage to Whitman is primarily the accusation that she knowingly employed an undocumented worker.
