Mother, Son to Be Tried on Charges of Enslaving Maid

A Municipal Court judge Wednesday ordered a 53-year-old woman and her son to face trial on charges that they enslaved and assaulted their live-in Mexican maid at the family’s San Diego home, but the judge dismissed so-called “involuntary servitude” and related counts against the accused woman’s daughter.

“This type of activity is not condoned in Mexico, and it is not condoned here in the United States,” Judge H. Ronald Domnitz declared, explaining his decision to bind over Esperanza Vargas, 53, and her son, Raul Vargas, 22, for trial in Superior Court. “I think these people took advantage of their wealth and their education.”

If convicted, both could face up to five years in state prison on charges of involuntary servitude, false imprisonment and assault. Both have pleaded not guilty. Each is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail.

However, Domnitz ruled that Vargas’ daughter, Claudia, 24, who had also been charged in the case, had actually befriended and attempted to assist the victim, Juana Hernandez Ortiz, 19, who previously testified that she had been beaten, deprived of medical care and held as virtual captive in the home on Cerrissa Court in southern San Diego.

The former maid testified that Claudia Vargas had attempted to intervene and protect her in the face of physical and verbal abuse from the mother.

But Claudia Vargas was to be turned over to U.S. immigration authorities. Her immigration status is uncertain as is that of her mother and brother, said her attorney, Michael Stein of San Diego. All three Vargas family members are Mexican citizens, as is Hernandez.

The Vargas family first engaged Hernandez’s services in Mexico City during the latter half of 1989, the maid testified. Hernandez, the oldest of a poor family of eight from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, later accompanied the family to Tijuana, and, in September, 1989, crossed the border illegally in a trip arranged by the Vargas family, she testified.

She remained in the family’s employ until last month, when San Diego police, acting on an anonymous tip, arrived at the family’s home, questioned the maid and eventually arrested the three members of the Vargas family.