Pinay nurses seek justice for wrongful prosecution

MANILA, Philippines — A group of 10 Filipina nurses reportedly struck back at US prosecutors for wrongful prosecution, according to migration and recruitment expert Manny Geslani.

Last week, the nurses asked the US Supreme Court to hear their case against former Suffolk County, New York prosecutor Thomas Spota and his assistant Leonard Lato, who brought charges against them in 2006 to keep them working in a nursing home which violated the terms of their contracts.

The Sentosa Filipina nurses, who were brought to New York State by Sentosa Nursing Homes, complained about the living and working conditions with the Philippine embassy in New York.

Two Filipino Immigration lawyers, Felix Vinluan and Salvador Tuy, stood as their defense lawyers.

The Institute for Justice filed the case for the nurses who are seeking justice for the wrongful prosecution by the two state prosecutors, and have asked the US Supreme Court to hear the case and reconsider the doctrine of absolute immunity so that victims can have their rights vindicated.

In 2006 Vinluan filed a federal discrimination claim on the nurses’ behalf with the US Department of Justice. Because the conditions continued to be intolerable, the nurses resigned, giving eight to 72 hours of advance notice and making sure all their patients received uninterrupted care.

Sentosa retaliated by reporting the nurses to New York’s nurse-licensing agency, which found the nurses did nothing to endanger their patients; filing a lawsuit in state court, which failed; and submitting a complaint to the Suffolk County Police Department, which investigated the nurses but declined to take any action.

In 2009, a New York appellate court found that Spota and Lato had brought the charges “without or in excess of jurisdiction” because they violated the First Amendment right of a lawyer to give legal advice and the Thirteenth Amendment rights of the nurses not to be subjected to involuntary servitude.

The court ordered the prosecution stopped.

However, when Vinluan and the nurses brought a federal civil rights lawsuit against Spota and Lato, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the two prosecutors were entitled to absolute prosecutorial immunity.

Prosecutorial immunity shields prosecutors from civil lawsuits, even when their actions are intentional, bad faith violations of constitutional rights.

The Sentosa Filipina nurses have all left New York and have settled in many parts of the US, and are hoping that the US Supreme Court will give them justice for the involuntary servitude they suffered in 2006 from Sentosa Nursing Homes.