A Chilean nanny who accused her employers of keeping her as a virtual slave told a different tale under oath, according to court papers.
Felicitas del Carmen Villanueva Garnica, 50, claimed in a bombshell Manhattan federal court lawsuit that Chilean aristocrats Malu Custer Edwards and Micky Hurley “trafficked” her to the United States, where she spent three months in “forced labor” and was denied food and medicine while locked in a room with their allegedly abusive children.
But Villanueva contradicted several of her key claims in a sworn deposition, according to lawyers for the Upper East Side couple, who suggest the
allegations might be a result of her own “mental illness.”
“Under oath, she admits that her most incendiary allegations are not true,” court papers argue.
Villanueva’s lawsuit says she was locked in a room with the children, but in her deposition she “cannot recall” if the door was physically locked. She had claimed she was ordered never to leave the family’s apartment, but under oath confirmed she left for hours at a time while the kids were at school, as well as on eight separate occasions. And she testified she had regular phone calls to her mother and son in Chile, despite earlier claims of isolation.
Villanueva even testified she simply allowed the children to hit her, according to court papers.
Lawyers for Villanueva did not return calls for comment.