Nanny accused of dumping children in unlicensed day care
L.A. officials say she told multiple parents in Hancock Park and Larchmont that she was taking their children to outside activities. Instead, she left them at a Hollywood apartment.
Authorities have accused a nanny of running a five-year scheme in which she agreed to care for children in the Hancock Park and Larchmont areas but then dumped them off at an unlicensed day-care center in a Hollywood apartment.
Roxana Villamarin, 38, was charged Tuesday with seven misdemeanor, including grand theft, intimidating a witness and making annoying phone calls, after she tried to prevent a continuing investigation, said prosecutor Will Rivera of the Los Angeles city attorney's office.
Investigators believe Villamarin worked as a nanny between 2002 and 2007 and was given charge of children ranging from 6 months to 7 years old. She created fake credentials in order to gain parents' trust, telling the parents of twin infants that she was an expert on twins, telling a family with an autistic child that she was an expert on autism, according to the city attorney's office.
The case names five families, each with two children they placed in her care. But authorities said they believe up to 30 children could be involved.
Villamarin allegedly told parents she wanted to "expose" children to various cultural activities such as museum visits, libraries, the aquarium and farmers markets in Los Angeles. Once she received permission to take the children out, she dropped them off at an apartment in the 400 block of North Normandie Avenue in Hollywood and would go work at the Chinatown farmers market selling fruit. Sometimes she picked up children from multiple families during the day, Rivera said.
When she returned for the children at the end of the day, Villamarin paid the woman running the unlicensed day-care apartment, who was a neighbor, between $5 and $10 for each child, according to prosecutors. Villamarin was paid between $12 and $16 an hour for each child, Rivera said.
"The families would pay her when they were on vacation," Rivera said. "They gave her vacation, they gave her paid time away to go see her family every year for the holidays. It's a total breach of trust."
Last May, Villamarin decided she wanted to have Thursdays off while working for one family with 6-month-old twins, so she negotiated the hiring of an "assistant" nanny, whom she had met at a Jewish Community Center, Rivera said. Villamarin told the assistant nanny, "Tell them I'm your cousin, let me do the talking, we'll get you hired, and you'll work for them on Thursdays," Rivera said. "So it was deceitful from the beginning."
