CITY PROBES COP'S ROLE IN DRUG ARREST

Alleged planting of cocaine seen as divorce weapon

Chicago police are investigating allegations an officer planted cocaine in
the car of an Oak Park woman and then arrested her as part of a conspiracy
to help the woman's husband in their divorce case, according to court
documents and interviews.

The City of Chicago, as well as the husband, recently settled a federal
lawsuit brought by the woman, an executive in the financial industry, who
alleged in the lawsuit that she was falsely arrested and that the officer
and her husband had conspired against her. The City of Chicago, which
represented Officer Jay Ramirez, agreed to pay the woman, Elizabeth
Geannopulos, $65,000 to settle the lawsuit. The husband, Paul Geannopulos,
agreed to subtract $20,000 from his share of the couple's assets when the
divorce becomes final, according to the settlement.

The city and Paul Geannopulos did not admit any wrongdoing.

David Bayless, a Police Department spokesman, said recently that Internal
Affairs officers investigated the incident once and did not sustain a case
against Ramirez. But, he added, information developed during the federal
lawsuit prompted a second investigation, which is ongoing. Bayless declined
to comment on the nature of the new information.

Ramirez, who remains on active duty in the Wood District, declined comment.
Paul Geannopulos, who is described in court documents as a Web designer,
could not be reached for comment.

The incident that prompted the lawsuit and investigation of Ramirez occurred
on Sept. 26, 2001. At the time, Elizabeth and Paul Geannopulos were in the
midst of their divorce and battling over visitation rights to their
daughter.

Divorce court records show that Paul Geannopulos' visitation rights had been
suspended that morning following allegations he had been harassing his wife
in violation of an order of protection. A month earlier, he had been
convicted of criminal damage to her auto, according to court records.

Shortly before 7 p.m., Elizabeth, then a senior vice president at Heller
Financial Inc., was on her way home from work when Ramirez, driving an
unmarked police vehicle, stopped her near Madison Street and Ogden Avenue,
then searched the car, according to the lawsuit and police reports.

Ramirez claimed he found cocaine "in plain view" in the back seat. He
arrested Elizabeth Geannopulos and took her to a police station. She was
later moved to another police station and finally to a court facility. She
was charged with possession of a controlled substance and was released on
bond the following day, according to court records.

Tom Peters, the lawyer who represented her in the federal lawsuit, said
telephone records of Paul Geannopulos' phone showed that beginning at about
9 a.m. that morning and throughout the day, he made calls to both police
stations, to the court facility and to the Cook County Jail.

In an interview with the Tribune, Elizabeth Geannopulos said that later that
day, the couple and their daughter were in divorce court for an emergency
hearing on the visitation issue and her husband approached.

"He told my daughter I was going to jail for drugs," she said. "I never told
him about the arrest and neither did my father."

Before the case came to court, Elizabeth Geannopulos passed two drug tests
and one lie-detector test, according to Terence Gillespie, the lawyer who
handled the criminal charge.

"Elizabeth was on the phone with her father when she was pulled over,"
Gillespie said in an interview.

"Ramirez asked for her license and walked back to his car and immediately
called for a squadrol to take her away," Gillespie said. "He hadn't searched
the car yet, and he was calling for a car to take her in to the station."

Gillespie said police radio records and telephone records of Elizabeth
Geannopulos' cell phone showed Ramirez called for the squadrol one minute
after she hung up with her father.

"There was not enough time for him to have searched the car and found
cocaine before he called in as his report said," Gillespie said. "It was a
setup."

The charges against Elizabeth Geannopulos were dropped when Ramirez did not
appear at a court hearing, according to court records. David Frumm,
Elizabeth Geannopulos' divorce lawyer, declined to comment because the
divorce case was pending. But in a court filing in connection with the
divorce, he stated that the case had been referred to the Cook County
state's attorney's office.

Peters also said Internal Affairs investigators had interviewed Elizabeth
Geannopulos and the state's attorney's office was involved.

John Gorman, spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office,
declined comment, saying it was office policy to neither confirm nor deny
such inquiries.