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# Modern day slave story a common tale in Los Angeles
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/modern-day-slave-story-a-common-tale-in-los-angeles/
- Published: 2004-09-03T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:00:43.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*After a $1.6M verdict, woman speaks out*

*By GENEVA WHITMARSH Daily Press Staff Writer*

LOS ANGELES — Just days after a Santa Monica jury awarded Nena Jimeno Ruiz $1.6 million for the year she spent enslaved in a Sony Pictures executive’s home, she began publicly telling her story in an effort to help other victims of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.

Ruiz, one of about 18,000 people trafficked to the United States each year, spoke Thursday at a press conference at the Radison Wilshire Plaza in Los Angeles. The 60-year-old former schoolteacher told of being lured from the Philippines under false pretenses, then forced to work 18-hour days at James and Elizabeth Jackson’s Culver City home.

James Jackson is currently on leave as the vice president of legal affairs at Sony Pictures, according to a company spokeswoman. Elizabeth Jackson, like Ruiz, is of Filipino descent.

“I had to cook, clean, wash clothes, iron, hem dresses and tame the two dogs,” Ruiz said through tears. “I cooked for the dogs, but I was given leftovers that had been in the fridge for days. I had to clean (the dogs’) ears and give them vitamins, but I was forced to sleep on a dog bed.

“If I complained, Mrs. Jackson said she’d call the police, they’d lock me up and I’d never see my family,” she said.

Ruiz’s story, though shocking to many, is not uncommon, said Kay Buck, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking.

“This is a sad reminder that slavery is alive today,” Buck said. “It’s remarkable that (Ruiz) was identified, as most victims of extreme isolation are at the hands of their traffickers. They work in restaurants, massage parlors, sweat shops and your neighbor’s house, as was the case with Nena.”

Statistics show there are 600,000 to 800,000 victims of trafficking on an international scale, with 15,000 to 18,000 of those trafficked to the United States. Annual profits for traffickers is estimated at $9 billion and the crime ranks third next to arms and drug trafficking in organized criminal activities, according to the coalition.

Los Angeles trails New York and Miami as the U.S. city most people are trafficked to, Burk said. The coalition, which opened its doors in 1998, has seen more than 200 victims and is currently helping 70 traf-ficked persons meet immediate food, shelter, medical and legal needs.

“Most trafficking survivors speak no English, have no passport and don’t have the life skills to survive in an urban setting, such as crossing streets, taking a bus or calling 911,” Burk said.

Ruiz said the Jacksons were with her the three times she left the 25-unit gated condominium complex where they lived. She was discouraged from talking to outsiders, but eventually approached neighbor Sandra Sheridan for help.

“Nena took my hand, said, ‘Please help me’ and started to cry,” Sheridan said at the press conference. “I tried so many times to get Nena to let me call the police, but she was afraid the police or immigration services would put her in jail.”

But Sheridan eventually called law enforcement authorities, jump-starting a chain of events that led to Ruiz being removed from the Jacksons’ home and obtaining help from the coalition. “The Jacksons might have been successful in getting Nena to cook and scrub the floors, but they failed to break her will to survive,” Sheridan said.

The Jacksons have not been criminally charged and maintain that Ruiz’s work slowly evolved with them providing her room and board, and paying her $400 a month. They subtracted money from her paycheck for phone calls and items they bought her.

Ruiz’s story began receiving widespread attention last month after a civil lawsuit she filed in 2003 was heard during a jury trial at the Santa Monica Superior Courthouse.

Ruiz’s team of lawyers spent more than a week describing her year-long plight to jurors. They said she originally came to the United States in early 2001 to work as a traveling companion for Elizabeth Jackson’s sick mother. A few days after arriving in the country, she was moved to the Jacksons’ home, where she said she was forced to work more than 18 hours a day, seven days a week, while suffering physical and emotional abuse.

The jurors agreed the Jacksons were liable for each of the claims Ruiz filed in the lawsuit: Involuntary servitude, violation of the California Labor Code, false imprisonment and invasion of privacy, as well as fraud, assault and battery, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Ruiz was awarded $551,000 in back wages, penalty and other damages. The jury also found that the Jacksons should each pay $137,872.92 in punitive damages. Those amounts will double by state statute, according to Ruiz’s lawyers.

Today, Ruiz is employed as a certified nurse’s assistant and shares a Los Angeles apartment with a roommate. She is currently awaiting approval of a T-visa application filed in March. The T-visa, created for victims of trafficking, would allow her to stay and work in the country for three years, at which time she could apply for permanent residence.

There also are plans to try and reunite Ruiz with her husband and three grown children who she hasn’t seen since 2000, Burk said.

“I miss them very much,” she said. “I really can’t wait for the day I can be reunited with them.”

On Thursday, Ruiz took the podium and in a firm, loud voice spoke to the victims of trafficking and slavery. Her demeanor was much different than it had been in the courtroom just days before, where she appeared timid.

“I want to tell the men, women and children who are suffering like I was that they don’t have to be afraid,” Ruiz said. “It gives me strength to know that justice has been served. Now I have hopes and dreams.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 3, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/090304.pdf?ref=smdp.com)