NRI millionaire in US on trial for keeping Indian as 'slave'

An Indian-American woman, who is accused of keeping an Indian immigrant as a slave in her mansion here, has told a US court that she had no role in employing the maid.
40-year-old Annie George told jurors that her late husband made every important decision during the time she allegedly forced her ex-employee Valsamma Mathai to work as an illegal servant.
Federal prosecutors say Annie's ex-servant Mathai, 49, from Kerala worked illegally for 17 to 18 hour shifts with no time off and no sick leave in three homes for the Georges, the last being the 30,000-square-feet Llenroc mansion in Rexford, where she slept in a closet.

The testimony about alleged domestic abuse could be key to Annie's defence as it could lead jurors to conclude she had no role in deciding to employ the servant.
Annie faces up to 10 years in prison and a USD 250,000 fine if convicted in the US District Court of harbouring an illegal alien for financial gain.
Annie also testified she treated her former worker like "family" � and kept her from living in squalor in India.

Prosecutors say Mathai's visa, issued to her in 1998, allowed her to work for her previous employer in Manhattan � not Annie's family, for whom she ended up working for five-and-a-half years, Timesunion.Com reported.

Annie, who moved to America in 2001, repeatedly broke into tears when testifying about her late husband, Mathai Kolath George, who was killed along with the couple's eldest of six children, George Kolath, in a private plane crash in the Mohawk River in June 2009.
Annie said the death of her husband crushed her emotionally and financially; he owned six motels, all of which are now closed, bankrupt or in foreclosure. She said she constantly deals with creditors and nonstop pressure from in-laws.
Under further questioning from her attorney, Mark Sacco, Annie's voice shook as she reluctantly revealed the abuse from the man she wed in an arranged marriage.

Assistant US Attorney Rick Belliss objected to the line of questioning, telling Chief US District Court Judge Gary Sharpe it was an obvious attempt by the defence to elicit sympathy from the jury. Sharpe did eventually cut off Sacco from continuing to show the wife's state of abuse.
Annie said she never knew Mathai did not have a visa.