Nanny awarded $2.7 million after finding nude videos of herself filmed by millionaire boss

A Manhattan jury has awarded $2.7 million to a live-in nanny who found she was being secretly videotaped by her millionaire boss. Kelly Andrade found hundreds of hours of footage of herself in the nude after discovering a secret camera in her room’s smoke detector, reported Yahoo News.

The camera had been placed by Michael Esposito, the 35-year-old owner of three LaRosa Grill franchises whose children Andrade had been hired to look after.

According to reports, Andrade flew from Colombia to New York in 2021 to work as an au-pair for the four children of Michael Esposito and his wife Danielle. She was hired by placement firm Cultural Care Au Pair and lived at the waterfront home of Danielle’s parents in Tottenville on Staten Island as the couple’s own mansion was under renovation.

Andrade quickly grew suspicious of her boss as he frequently fiddled with the smoke detector in her room. According to the lawsuit, she regularly caught Esposito in her room, messing with the ceiling smoke detector which “was constantly being repositioned.”

Just three weeks into her new job, she examined the smoke detector herself and found a tiny camera hidden inside. The memory card was filled with “hundreds of recordings,” many capturing her “nude and/or dressing/undressing,” the lawsuit said.

Esposito reportedly showed up at the house minutes after the camera was discovered. “He seemed very nervous and he seemed very worried when he arrived to the house,” Andrade said.

The live-in nanny pretended to be asleep to ward off Esposito, but he kept “banging on the door.”

Believing that he may be armed, Andrade jumped from the first-floor window to get away. She injured her knees in the process and spent the rest of the night in a bush on the street.

The next day, she went to the police and handed them the footage, reported The New York Post. Esposito was arrested on March 24, 2021.

Slap on the wrist

Andrade, however, is unhappy with his sentencing - Esposito was ordered to undergo counselling and satisfy two years probation. He was also ordered to pay US$780,000 in emotional distress damages as well as US$2 million in punitive damages — totalling $2.8 million.

His former employee feels this is only a slap on the wrist.

“It’s not enough for the whole situation I’ve been through these three years. It’s not enough,” Andrade told The Post. “I was angry because the damage that he caused me is irreversible.”