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.
Imus's ranch is a house of cards.
Well, I am sure he plays host to sick children every once in a while. Just to keep things legit. ;)
Don Imus is a clown and anyone who has anything to do with him is not all there.
I thought he said she had an actual gun, but perhaps I do not recall it correctly.
Imus is a nut. I can't believe that anybody takes him seriously.
LOL! Right! It's a vacation/retirement place for the I Man!
Don Imus has a five year old son? Who knew!
Sounds like he has a pretty sweet deal going there at his ranch.
Imus and co. way over reacted, but... WHY does a 22 year old woman carry around a cap gun?
Hm... Perhaps an anti-mugging device.
Nevermind, epiphany intervention.
APf
What a wimp.
i never understood why people listen to anus.
Apparently 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.
Named Wyatt, no less. After Earp, I presume.
(Side bar: When I first moved here to Tucson and it was a tiny town, I heard about two local brothers named Jesse James and Wyatt Earp)
Imus always talks about packing in NYC. My guess is he has a concealed permit. He's on a dam ranch and he has guns and he fires her for this. Sounds like the wife went off and he's backing her play. What a bunch of BS.
Why is Imus worried about a cap gun?
This guy packs heat on his radio show, so I'm gonna go ahead and guess that he has it with him at the ranch.
I suppose he would have to move his oxygen tank out of the way to pull his pistol.
Imus is the worst kind of fool, an "Old Fool".
Any real cowboy would kick his sorry ass. Wimp.
Well, you could put someone's eye out with that.
Imus's wife is a granola-eating-post-modern-hippy-trophy-wife.
Imus is pure loser.
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