10 Biggest Nanny News Stories of 2011

The holiday season and year’s end is a natural time for reflection. As we scan through our files, it seems to us that 2011 was a fairly busy year for nanny news. So we’ve compiled a list of what we consider to be, in no particular order, the ten biggest nanny news stories of 2011. See if you agree:

1. Gadhafi Nanny Tortured – Shweyga Mullah, the nanny for the family of Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi’s son, Hannibal, is reported to have been tortured by the family. She had been doused with boiling water by Hannibal Gadhafi’s wife, Aline.
2. The Babysitter Bill – The California state assembly introduced a bill, A.B. 889, AKA “The Babysitter Bill”, which included provisions regarding such issues as overtime pay, rest breaks and the right for household employees (nannies, housekeepers, babysitters, etc) to sue employers for failure to meet the provisions. Though not officially dead, backlash from its introduction led to its suspension before it made it to the governor’s office.
3. Carjacked Nanny Hangs On – A Denver nanny, caring for a 3-year old boy was carjacked after helping an elderly man who had fallen. The carjacker drove off with the boy still in the vehicle, and the nanny hanging on.
4. Nanny Takes It To The Bank – Next time you check your Bank of America debit card statement, say a little thank you for part-time nanny Molly Katchpole. Thanks to her efforts in getting more than 300,000 signatures on a petition at Change.org , the financial Goliath rescinded their plan to assess debit card users with a $5 monthly fee.
5. Zanny the Nanny – Throughout her notorious trial for the murder of her 2-year old daughter Caylee, Casey Anthony claimed that a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez, whom she nicknamed “Zanny”, was Caylee’s babysitter for a number of years, and had abducted the child. No such person was ever identified. Then, bizarrely, a woman by that name who had no prior knowledge of Casey Anthony, came forward to sue her for defamation of character.
6. Woman Answers Ad for Nanny, Then Raped – In Scotland, Indulus Lukstins posted an ad for a nanny on a Latvian jobs site. An unidentified 21-year old woman answered the ad, was hired and picked up at the airport by Lukstins, and subsequently raped.
7. Nanny Charged With First Degree Manslaughter – In Washington, Kelli Jacobsen was arrested and charged with first degree manslaughter of the 12-month old child she was nannying. Her trial is still pending.
8. Nannies Try to Cash In – Herbert Simon, owner of the Indiana Pacers, was apparently the target of several former household employees, including two nannies, who made false claims against Mr. Simon and his wife Bui.
9. DeNiro’s Nanny Does Cash In – Former nanny for actor Robert DeNiro and wife Grace Hightower, Alexis Barry, is awarded $30,000 by the Manhattan Supreme Court for unpaid overtime.
10. Focus on Nanny in Multimillionaire Divorce – When metric tons of case and divorce are involved, nothing is sacred and one is safe. Not even the nanny. In other news across the pond, hedge fund co-founder and multimillionaire Elena Ambrosiadou claims that her estranged husband hired a private security firm to spy on her nanny. The information that was gathered would then be used to coerce the nanny, Carmen Michalska, into testifying against Miss Ambrosiadou.

Taken From Nanny Services