For nearly six years, Daisy Vargas allegedly served as Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes’ reluctant right hand.

Valdes first took a liking to Vargas — who was hired as a bilingual stenographer nearly two decades ago — after Vargas redecorated an office bathroom in 2013, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in state Superior Court in Paterson.  

Then it snowballed. First, Vargas helped her boss redecorate the bathroom in her Totowa office, the suit said. Then Vargas helped Valdes and her daughters move. Then she redecorated Valdes’ townhouse.

Before she knew it, the lawsuit said, Vargas was catering Valdes’ parties on her own dime, putting up Valdes’ Christmas decorations, cleaning her attic, shampooing her rugs, pulling dead, decaying rats from her garbage cans, pleading with her husband to fix Valdes’ car for free and dropping $1,000 on a deposit for Valdes’ father’s funeral, among other things.

In return, Valdes granted Vargas a promotion and her own office, according to the suit.

But when it became too much and Vargas ended the friendship in 2019, Valdes allegedly retaliated by creating a work environment so hostile that it sent Vargas into the hospital for a psychological condition and severe depression, the lawsuit said.

"[Vargas] reasonably believed that Ms. Valdes was violating the law by treating her in the manner she had for years, by using her authority over the plaintiff in order to compel [her and her husband] to perform services, then never paying for them," the lawsuit read. "Valdes retaliated against [Vargas] for objecting to her illegal conduct and made the plaintiff's working environment intolerably hostile through severe and pervasive conduct."

Vargas said in the suit that she believed Valdes broke the state’s official misconduct statute and violated its Conscientious Employee Protection Act. She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and other relief, the lawsuit said.

Her attorney, Nicholas Milewski of Iselin, did not return a request for comment Thursday.

Valdes did not respond to calls and texts seeking comment. Passaic County spokesman Keith Furlong declined to comment on pending litigation.

The suit is the latest headache for the embattled prosecutor, who is likely enduring the rockiest stretch of her 13-year tenure as Passaic County's top cop.

Rank-and-file officers from local and county departments have often griped in private about Valdes, who directly oversees about 185 employees and has broad authority over every local police force that operates in the county.

But that once-whispered strife exploded into the public eye in late July when delegates from nearly every police union in Passaic voted no-confidence in the prosecutor and demanded her resignation.

In a letter accompanying the vote, union delegates said Valdes has ineffectively staffed her office, devoted resources to investigating her own officers instead of criminals and demonstrated “little concern for the effective administration of her duties.”

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It was a symbolic gesture — the vote carried no consequence for Valdes, a former Newark municipal prosecutor, deputy state attorney general and assistant U.S. attorney. And the county’s police chiefs have backed the prosecutor in their own open letter.  

But experts said the vote likely reflected a dire situation that could damage her office.

Meanwhile, county sources have said state Sen. Kristin Corrado — a Totowa Republican and former Passaic County clerk who represents the state’s 40th Legislative District — is blocking Valdes’ third term by invoking “senatorial courtesy,” which lets senators block or delay nominees from their home counties while they try to extract concessions from either the governor’s office or their colleagues.

Corrado has not answered texts and calls seeking comment.

Valdes befriended Vargas in 2013 after she decorated an office bathroom with art and fake plants, the suit said. Valdes gushed over the bathroom’s new look and recruited Vargas to help decorate Valdes’ recently renovated private bathroom in her Totowa office, according to the suit.

Later, she allegedly asked Vargas to help her move into a new townhouse — she was going through a “very nasty divorce” and told Vargas she had no one else, according to the suit.

Vargas “felt pressured because Ms. Valdes was her boss and was asking for her assistance with personal tasks,” according to the lawsuit. So she said yes.

But the tasks quickly escalated, the suit said.  

Vargas helped Valdes set up her new home and allegedly became Valdes’ personal shopper, picking out bathroom decorations from Bed Bath & Beyond, searching for a shelf for Valdes’ books and buying curtains for Valdes’ daughters, among other things.

Valdes used Vargas’ truck to haul the items, according to the suit.

On the prosecutor’s command, Vargas burned her own vacation days to hang shower curtains, assemble furniture, organize Valdes’ shoes, stow Valdes’ daughters’ clothes in drawers, unpack her kitchen appliances and line the prosecutor’s books on the shelves from “tallest to smallest,” the suit said.

Vargas allegedly worked so much at Valdes’ new place — until 2 a.m. on one occasion — that she missed a birthday celebration her family had planned.

In December 2013, she allegedly had to put up two Christmas trees at the Valdes residence, decorate them herself, then decorate the rest of the house, the suit said.

In return, Valdes allegedly told Vargas she should let her know if she had problems with anyone at the Prosecutor’s Office — Valdes would “take care of it,” according to the suit. And she gave Vargas an office as a “thank you” for her troubles.  

Vargas and her husband continued to do a variety of work for the prosecutor, the lawsuit said. Vargas allegedly served as Valdes’ personal chauffeur, ferrying her back and forth to the airport and stores in Paramus.

In 2015, Valdes invited Vargas to a wine and painting party in Montclair for Valdes' birthday. But she allegedly made Vargas stop on the way for empanadas and pastries so her 10 friends could eat while they were there.

Nobody else brought food, the lawsuit said. Valdes never paid Vargas back.

On three occasions, the prosecutor allegedly pressured Vargas’ husband to fix cars for her. He did the work each time, once repairing a detective’s broken-down vehicle and twice mending dents and scratches on Valdes’ personal car.

The prosecutor allegedly stiffed him each time, the lawsuit said.

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Vargas also helped Valdes move again in June 2016, and claimed she worked so intensely in the summer heat that she fell ill with vertigo and missed two months of work, the lawsuit said.

Valdes, who allegedly still needed help moving, asked Vargas to send her 10-year-old daughter to the prosecutor’s house so she could clean and pack. Vargas did so, the suit said.

In return, Valdes in September 2016 promoted Vargas to the agent in charge of the office’s Megan’s Law unit, the suit said.

Vargas also said she accompanied Valdes to the hospital when her father took ill.

After his death, Vargas allegedly accompanied Valdes, her mother and her two sisters to a funeral home on Mount Prospect Avenue in Newark, the suit said.

The funeral home asked for a $1,000 deposit before it began arranging the services.

“Valdes’ mother and two sisters looked away when the request was made and did not offer to pay,” the suit said. “Valdes asked the plaintiff if she could ‘help’ with the deposit. The plaintiff did not have any money on her, so she used her debit card to charge $1,000. Valdes never paid plaintiff back.”

And in 2018, Valdes asked Vargas’ family to come to a party on Labor Day weekend. But instead of treating them as guests, the prosecutor allegedly put them to work, cooking and cleaning for her guests and demanding Vargas stay late to help her clean up.

The strain nearly cost Vargas her marriage — according to the suit, she and her husband separated because Vargas was always running errands for Valdes, who he strongly disliked and believed was manipulating his wife.

Eventually, in 2019, Vargas ended the friendship through a long text message.

Valdes became irate, the lawsuit said. She never spoke to Vargas again and started retaliating against her, according to the suit.

Valdes took to calling her “Crazy Daisy,” and talked about her behind her back, the suit said. Valdes allegedly convinced county detectives to ignore her and made Vargas’ now-hostile supervisors heap work upon her, according to the lawsuit.  

Valdes threatened to fire her, the suit said, and initiated an internal affairs investigation based on Vargas’ alleged mishandling of her long-deceased father’s Megan’s Law information and processing.

The charge was later dismissed, the suit said.

And recently, the Prosecutor's Office has made Vargas' salary reliant on a federal grant, the suit said. When the grant is gone, Valdes will have an easy way to rid herself of Vargas.

Vargas has allegedly tried to mend fences with Valdes. But she said the prosecutor has never responded.