- Email came from Micky Hurley, 35 – a New York socialite from a prominent Chilean families who called the photographer ‘lower class’
PUBLISHED: 23:31 EST, 21 June 2013 | UPDATED: 23:31 EST, 21 June 2013
Now a second former employee is complaining of mistreatment by a wealthy New York City family who refused to pay a photographer his fee and dismissed him with an offensive, elitist note.
Malu Custer Edwards, 28, and Micky Hurley, 35, both from well-known families in Chile, first came under fire when their Chilean nanny filed a suit against them claiming that they kept her ‘as a virtual slave’ in their Upper East Side apartment and only paid her $2-per-hour as she worked 12-hour days.
The latest complaint comes from photographer Roque Rodriguez who asked for $240 following some photography work that he did for the family in 2009.
His request for payment was met with a hate-filled email that read: ‘DON’T COME THREATENING ME YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE S***. NEVER.’
Accusations: Socialites Malu Custer Edwards, 29, left, and Mickey Hurley, 35, right, are being sued by their former nanny and now a former photographer released emails that he exchanged with the husband
‘Remember, you are ALWAYS going to be from a different class, you were born where you were born,’ Hurley wrote, according to Gawker.
The aristocrat went on to paint a contrast between their two families, saying that Rodriguez was ‘a great-grandson of a seamstress.’
The online drama began after Rodriguez shot some photos of Hurley’s interior design work.
Photographer: Roque Rodriguez requested $240 payment for his work
The New York Post reports that when Hurley asked for copies of the images so that he could use them in a magazine spread, Rodriguez said only if he was paid his fee first.
‘Listen you poor, miserable low-born social climber. Delete your grubby photos…This is what I get for working with street trash like you,’ Hurley wrote.
‘Just remember, because you have angered me you will NEVER work for ANY magazine or newspaper in Chile.’
This tirade comes after the couple’s behavior was called into question following the publication of a lawsuit filed by their former nanny.
Felicitas del Carmen Villanueva Garnica, 50 alleges she was locked in the socialite couple’s Upper East Side apartment, physically abused by their three children and forced to work 12 hours a day for just $2 an hour for three months until she finally mustered the courage to leave.
She says Malu Custer Edwards, 28, and Hurley, 35, brought her to the U.S. with a fake passport and had her lie to customs officials about her true intentions in the country.
Villanueva claimed the New York Post that the couple often left her with only small slices of bread and milk to eat, while they were regulars at the exclusive French restaurant Balthazar – where entrees run $30 to $45.
The couple denies Villaneuva’s allegations and are fighting the lawsuit.
‘The claims are completely without merit and will be fully refuted in court,’ attorney Robin Alperstein told the Post.
Villanueva finally fled the home in March 2011 after one of the children slammed her head with a refrigerator door so hard that she nearly lost consciousness, she alleges.
Villanueva says she began working for Edwards and Hurley in Chile in December 2010.
They decided to move to New York in January 2011 so Edwards could enroll the the New School. Villanueva says the couple told her they would pay her $10 an hour and give her health benefits if she came with them and looked after their three children, ages 6, 8 and 10.
Upscale: The couple were regulars at the posh French restaurant Balthazar, while Felicitas del Carmen Villanueva Garnica claims she often had only milk and bread to eat
When she arrived in New York, though, she alleges the couple began paying her only $800 a month, allegedly claiming no nanny in New York makes more than $700 a month.
She claims she worked 12 hours a day and had only one day off in three months.
‘They brought me here to mistreat me,’ Villanueva told the Post. ‘They were telling me I don’t have any rights of any sort.’
She claims in court documents the job amounted to ‘forced labor’ and ‘involuntary servitude.’ The Post says Villanueva was kept as a ‘virtual slave.’
She alleged in an interview with the Post that she begged to be sent back to Chile, but the couple refused to let her move home – saying she signed a two-year contract.
Instead, she claims, she was often locked in rooms, forced to sleep on the floor.
She says she was promised health care benefits, but the couple allegedly refused to let her refill her hypertension medication.
Villaneuva said she was happy working for the couple when she lived in Chile, but it changed after they brought her to the U.S. on a fake passport.
Edwards, a graphic designer, is related to Agustín Edwards McClure, a Chilean diplomat who led the League of Nations in 1922. Hurley, an interior decorator, is a descendant of the country’s founding settlers and related to opera set designer Pier Luigi Samaritani.
‘All Chile knows them. They come from a family with lots of resources,’ Villanueva said of Edwards’ family.
Despite the denials from Edwards and Hurley, the New York Department of Labor ordered the couple to pay Villanueva $6,302 in back wages in 2011.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346293/Malu-Custer-Edwards-Micky-Hurley-Photographer-blasted-poor-miserable-social-climber-wealthy-Chilean-couple-kept-nanny-slave-requested-payment-work.html#ixzz2Wxu9m3iK Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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