Lawsuits

Former Maid Sues Meg Whitman

Illegal immigrant worked for her for nine years.

This doesn’t seem like the campaign-killer it was hyped to be: On Tuesday, attorney Gloria Allred announced that she was filing a suit on behalf of Nikky Diaz Santillan due to hours that she worked for which she wasn’t paid, and for mileage she accrued while running errands for Meg Whitman. The real thrust of the lawsuit seems to be to draw attention to what Allred calls Whitman’s “hypocrisy.” Santillan is an undocumented immigrant and worked for Whitman for nine years—during which time she says Whitman received several indications of her immigration status, including multiple letters from the Social Security Administration alerting Whitman that Santillan's Social Security number did not match her name. Whitman did not fire Santillan until she decided to run for governor, when Santillan came forward to ask for help with her immigration. When she told Whitman, Santillan says Whitman’s husband, Dr. Griff Harsh, yelled at his wife, “I told you she was going to bring this problem.” Santillan says Whitman told her that she’d ask her lawyer about helping her, and then she called her a few days later telling her she was fired and, “You don’t know me and I don’t know you.” Whitman's camp has responded by claiming that Santillan lied about her immigration status in 2000, and only confessed in 2009 her illegal residency.