10 Sentosa Nurses Acquitted by a New York Court
New York’s state appeals court on Thursday acquitted the 10 Filipino “Sentosa Nurses” from criminal charges of endangering their patients when they decided to leave their posts in a Long Island nursing home back in 2006.
These Filipino nurses left their jobs in protest against recruitment violations from their employer, Sentosa Recruitment Agency, the company that hired them from the Philippines for a 3-year contract to work in the United States.
In an unprecedented decision, the court also stopped the Suffolk district attorney’s from pursuing further criminal charges against the 10 Filipino nurses along with their lawyer at the time, Felix Vinluan.
The 10 nurses who were acquitted were Elmer Jacinto, Juliet Anilao, Harriet Avila. Mark de la Cruz, Claudine Gamiao, Jennifer Lampe, Rizza Maulion, James Millena, Ma. Theresa Ramos and Ranier Sichon.
Some of the nurses had been working as doctors in the Philippines and took up nursing to be able to work in the US. Jacinto, for instance, a licensed doctor, topped the medical board examinations in 2004.
Ironically, the Sentosa Nurses lost their cases and claims for compensation filed in the Philippines against their employer when the POEA, NLRC and the DOJ dismissed the recruitment and contract violations and illegal dismissal cases.
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