A former Fulton County magistrate judge, along with his son, a Forsyth County deputy, and his son's wife, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on human trafficking charges involving a nanny from India.

William Garrett Jr., 72, an Alpharetta lawyer; deputy sheriff Russell Garrett, 43; and Malika Garrett, 42, were charged in a nine-count indictment.

Russell and Malika Garrett, who have been married since 1993 and have two children, live in Woodstock. The couple faces charges of human trafficking, alien harboring, witness tampering and making false statements.

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias the the nanny, only identified as "R.S." in the indictment, was subjected to a "form of modern day slavery." The indictment alleges that after the nanny escaped from the Garretts' Woodstock home in June 2005, the couple spread vicious rumors about her, including falsely accusing her of theft.

Malika Garrett is also charged with making false statements last year to the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department for claiming the nanny should be investigated for possible terrorism, the indictment said.

"This case is an example of alleged domestic servitude of a nanny brought over from India," Nahmias said in a statement. "This type of abuse is insidious, as it preys upon those who are vulnerable due to their immigration status and unfamiliarity with this country's legal system."

The case was brought by both the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in Washington.

The three Garretts appeared briefly Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate E. Clayton Scofield III and entered pleas of not guilty. They were granted bond.

When Scofield asked them if they had read the indictment, William Garrett answered, "I haven't finished. But I pretty much know what's there." He faces two counts — conspiring to induce the nanny to enter the United States under false pretenses and making false statements.

William Garrett Jr. was a Fulton County magistrate while most of the alleged scheme was going on. He last received pay as a magistrate in December 2005, Jessica Corbitt, public affairs manager for the county's Office of Community Relations, said in an e-mail.

Forsyth Sheriff Ted Paxton said Wednesday that Russell Garrett has been placed on administrative leave. Garrett began working at the Sheriff's Department in August 2002 and had recently been assigned to the court security division, Paxton said.

The indictment alleges that, beginning in January 2003, the three defendants conspired to induce the victim, a female Indian national, to enter the United States under false pretenses to serve as a live-in nanny for Russell and Malika Garrett's children. But the Garretts later stopped paying the nanny, curtailed her freedom, made her live in an unheated basement room and told her she could be jailed easily because she was a criminal, the indictment said.