Posted on 11/30/2004 10:49:12 AM PST by new cruelty
NOVEMBER 30--A New York woman who briefly worked as a nanny for Don Imus has sued the radio host for wrongful termination, claiming she was canned for bringing a harmless cap gun and pocketknife with her during a trip last Thanksgiving to the family's sprawling New Mexico ranch.
Nichole Mallette, 24, also claimed in her New York State Supreme Court lawsuit, a copy of which you'll find below, that she was defamed when Imus later announced on his program that he had been forced to "disarm" his nanny, whom he labeled as dangerous and a "terrorist." In her complaint, filed yesterday by the lawyer who represented the woman who recently accused Bill O'Reilly of various improprieties, Mallette claimed that she brought the cap gun with her so that she and Imus's five-year-old son could "play cowboys" at the 4000-acre ranch.
As for the pocketknife, Mallette noted that the 1-1/2-inch item was never unsheathed from a leather harness affixed to her belt. In her lawsuit, Mallette alleged that she endured "frenzied questioning" by Imus and his wife Deirdre, who woke her at 1 AM to grill her about the pocketknife and the cap gun, which Mallette said she did not use nor show to Imus's son. After Deirdre Imus told her, "Pack your things, you're terminated," Mallette was escorted off the property at 4:15 AM by a ranch employee and the radio host.
Mallette, a Brooklyn resident, was hired by Imus last October 23 and cared for the star's son at homes in Manhattan and Connecticut, as well as the New Mexico property (according to its mission statement, the "sole purpose" of the so-called Imus Ranch is "to provide the experience of the great American cowboy" to seriously ill boys and girls and children who have lost siblings to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Mallette noted that during two separate stays at the ranch, which features a 14,000-square-foot adobe hacienda, "neither sick children nor children who had lost brothers and sisters to SIDS were present," just Imus, his family, and ranch employees.
Along with Imus and his wife, Mallete named as defendants the radio syndicator Westwood One and NBC, which simulcasts Imus's show on its MSNBC cable network.
I'm sure she won't mind . . . as long as the picture's aren't 'stuck' together. :)
She had old Fred run off a couple of years ago, he had sticky fingers and she did not want anyone taking from her money.
The ranch only host kids 3 times a year and there is only 6-8 kids on the ranch per session. The sessions only last a week or two.
It takes the ranch around 2 million a year to run without the kids there I'm sure it goes way higher than that when Imus and Diedra are presant.
Nothing more than an elitest platground.
Imus and co. way over reacted
Sounds like his wife way over reacted and he went along with the program. Now he has to deal with the consequences. LOL.
the rules say if you mention cup size must have picture ready
I can't WAIT for his House of Cards to collapse!! What a FRAUD that Ranch is! He is smart enough to get Saps to pays for his lifestyle tho!
Go Nanny Go!
She said to play "Cowboys and Indians" with the kid, which I used to do when I was a child.That is most likely gonna lose the case for her. One can't point even cap guns at pretend "Native Americans". Oh, and they better be the good guys too!
I bet this fired nanny was good looking and the wife had more to do with her being let go than Imus. What knuckleheads.
The "I got it" was he figured out how OTHER people would pay for his scam. I hope the IRS is all over this.
He got wacked for doing the same to thing Howie Carr's wife a few years back....big mouth, small brain
Did they specifically ever tell her not to bring TOY GUNS to play with the kid? Sounded like it was a well thought out activity. Imus' trophy wife is a bit of a nut and old men with trophy wives are even nuttier.
To be stuck on a cattle ranch out in the middle of nowhere with a militant vegetarian. (shudder!)
I'm sure the kids have a good time, but for me if would be pure hell. I don't want someone controlling the whole environment, especially controlling what I eat.
I saw the Imus family on Tim Russert a few years ago; Wyatt was about 2 years old, and Tim offered him some cookies. Dierdre immediately asked if they were made with such-and-such type of flour, and Tim mumbled something, like he didn't know what they were made of. But it was clear that Dierdre wasn't going to let Wyatt eat those cookies.
I have more faith in the human body to process any "toxins" that might be present in cane sugar and regular flour. We have these ingenious creations called a LIVER and KIDNEYS that can handle anything a regular cookie can dish out. That's what they're there for.
While I think that Imus is a drunken, paranoid lunatic, I think the most important line in the story is the one above.
I'll drink to that!!
Then they certainly deserve each other. Personally, I can't understand how an ex-coke head, whose mind is so far gone from brain damage that he mostly mumbles incoherently, ever became a radio talk show host. Must be a New York City thing.
Every summer Deirdre, Wyatt, and Don Imus host groups of kids with cancer and other illnesses at their 4,000-acre Imus Ranch in New Mexico. ."
During June, July, and August groups of 10 kids stay for nine days at a time and spend the time doing chores ..."They work, but it's very fulfilling,...."
The roll-up-your-sleeves aspect of the ranch seems to be deeply beneficial. "This is not a place where kids get a pat on the head and are told 'everythings okay,'" says Jurist. "They are responding to the realness of it." Deirdre confirms this and adds: "Don and I run a very tight ship. We're very businesslike with these kids."
I saw her on the Russet show, she is beyond bit@h.
What did Imus say about Howie Carr's wife and what happened? Did he sue? I can't believe I never heard about that!
Imus is pure loser.
I'd just like to associate myself with this remark.
We did have to leave the "gun" belts in a chair ouside the kindergarten door though. Try doing that now, LOL.
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