Latest news with #Michelidaki
San Francisco Chronicle
8 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
UC Berkeley professor slaying: Ex-wife accused of plotting killing to remain in custody before trial
A judge in Greece ruled that Konstantina Michelidaki will remain in jail ahead of her trial for allegedly killing her ex-husband, UC Berkeley professor Przemyslaw Jeziorski. Michelidaki is accused of taking part in a plot to kill Jeziorski. Four other men allegedly involved in Jeziorski's killing were also ordered to remain behind bars ahead of trial. Alexandros Pasiatas, Michelidaki's attorney, confirmed the judge's ruling in a text exchange with the Chronicle. Pasiatas previously asserted that Michelidaki had no involvement in orchestrating Jeziorski's death. Michelidaki faces moral accomplice charges. Two Albanian nationals and a Bulgarian national were charged with being accomplices. A fourth man, Christos Dounias, was charged with carrying out the killing. Dounias allegedly confessed to the crime, according to CNN, citing a leaked police report. The Chronicle could not independently verify the contents of that report. A masked gunman shot and killed Jeziorski in Athens on July 4, while he was on his way to pick up his children from Michelidaki's house. Jeziorski traveled to Athens for a custody case over whether he could take his children on vacation. On July 3, he won the right to take his children out of Greece, according to Robert Kowalski, a close friend of Jeziorski. Jeziorski and Michelidaki shared custody of 10-year-old twins who, as of last week, were under the care of the state in Athens, according to Pasiatas. Jeziorski and Michelidaki divorced in 2024, but were embroiled in a child custody and property battle at the time of his death, court records show. Jeziorski sought a restraining order against Michelidaki, saying he feared for his life, records show. Jeziorski alleged that Dounias assaulted him twice in the summer of 2024 in the restraining order petition.
San Francisco Chronicle
4 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘She made me afraid': Slain UC Berkeley professor sought restraining order against ex-wife
Two months before Przemyslaw Jeziorski was shot to death in Greece outside his ex-wife's home, the UC Berkeley professor sought a restraining order against her, saying he feared for his life. Jeziorski, 43, sought the court order amid a child custody and property battle with ex-wife Nadia Michelidaki, 43, accusing her of threats and extortion attempts, and her boyfriend of assaulting him twice during visits to her suburban Athens home to see his children. The request for a restraining order, filed in Alameda County Superior Court in May, detailed increasingly hostile behavior from Jeziorski's ex-wife and her boyfriend that made Jeziorski worry about what more they might do to him. Jeziorski was killed on July 4 as he was walking to Michelidaki's home to see his children. Earlier this week, Greek police arrested Michelidaki, her partner and three others, charging them with Jeziorski's killing. In an interview with the Chronicle, Michelidaki's attorney, Alexandros Pasiatas, said his client was not involved in Jeziorski's killing. Jeziorski and Michelidaki had visited a child psychologist and come to an agreement on their children's custody and summer plans, he said. Michelidaki had been 'very, very happy' with the agreement, he said, adding that it 'wouldn't make sense' for her to then have her partner kill Jeziorski half an hour later. Michelidaki was in police custody as of Thursday and will remain there until a hearing on July 21, when a judge will decide whether Michelidaki should remain in jail pending trial. Her children are currently under the care of the state, Pasiatas said. Jeziorski and Michelidaki married in 2014. Jeziorski filed for divorce in fall 2021, citing irreconcilable differences, and their marriage was dissolved in 2024, although bitter divorce proceedings continued as the couple fought over child custody and shared property. Jeziorski and Michelidaki negotiated an agreement where Jeziorski could take his children on vacation in July every year. In the 12-page restraining order request, Jeziorski accused Michelidaki of a raft of abusive behavior, such as sabotaging their mutual business, attempting to damage his professional reputation and withholding their children from him. He said he was assaulted twice by Michelidaki's partner, Christos Dounias, when he visited her home to drop off or pick up his children. During the first incident, on May 1, 2024, he said Dounias knocked his phone out of his hand during one exchange as he was on a phone call with his brother. Later that day, when he returned to the home to drop his children off, he said, Dounias came down to pick up the kids. 'I told him that since he had assaulted me, I was not comfortable leaving the kids with him for fear of their safety,' Jeziorski wrote in support of his request for a restraining order. He threatened to report Dounias for kidnapping if he took the children. At that point, he said, Dounias charged out of the home and began pushing and kicking him. Jeziorski wrote that he believed his ex-wife 'repeatedly' had Dounias pick up the children instead of appearing herself, which he viewed as a tactic to intimidate him. 'She made me afraid of my life by having her partner, who is hostile and aggressive towards me, (present) during the visitation exchange, despite my asking her not to do so,' he wrote. After the May 2024 incident, authorities charged Dounias with assault, Jeziorski said. Jeziorski went on to accuse Michelidaki of violating their custody agreement and refusing to renew their children's passports, 'which prevents me from taking them to see their grandparents. … Their grandfather is very advanced in age and I want my children to see them before he dies.' In his request for a restraining order, he also detailed several other incidents. In one, in early 2025, he said Michelidaki attempted to extort money from him by sending him messages on Slack accusing him of failing to give her co-authorship on research papers, threatening to 'contact my colleagues and the dean of my department if I did not pay her money.' 'Any small accusation of plagiarism will absolutely destroy my credibility and station in the academic community,' he said, calling the allegations 'a complete lie and slander,' and saying that many of the papers she wanted credit for were written years before the two met. He also said Michelidaki threatened to call police when he held a graduation party in early May at a Berkeley short-term rental property he and she co-owned. Jeziorski wrote that he believed Michelidaki was trying to 'humiliate me socially in order to control me' and their finances, and to get him to drop charges against her current partner. He went on to accuse Michelidaki of taking money out of their joint real estate accounts, actions that he said caused 'chaos' and made him worry she might damage his finances or create debts, and asked for sole control of the account and other business accounts. In the document, Jeziorski asked a judge to order Michelidaki to cease communications with him, to stop making defamatory statements about him and to stop contacting his professional colleagues. Court documents detail other aspects of the deterioration of Jeziorski and Michelidaki's relationship, including Jeziorski's allegation that Michelidaki was attempting to withhold their children from him and her attempts at tarnishing his reputation as an academic. This summer, Jeziorski planned to take his children to Poland, where they traveled annually to visit their grandparents, and the U.S. for a trip to Disneyland. In May, Jeziorski emailed Michelidaki, requesting she take their children to passport renewal appointments at the U.S. Embassy in Athens for their upcoming vacation with him. Michelidaki responded, 'Take them to the one in Paris. And what about your 'dying father'? Don't care to visit him anymore or he quit dying?' 'We don't need to talk this way. My father is not well,' Jeziorski wrote. Court documents also show that Jeziorski felt Michelidaki was threatening his career as a tenured professor of marketing at the Haas School of Business. Jeziorski said that In April, Michelidaki accused him of plagiarism in his research by failing to cite her as a co-author in 'every publication that gave (him) tenure position,' court documents show. 'Adding my name to the Airbnb reviews paper is not acceptable form of attribution. I want my name removed from this embarrassing paper and added to the papers I received in similarly embarrassing state and turned into top journal publications. But seriously remove my name from this trash today,' Michelidaki wrote to Jeziorski. Jeziorski said Michelidaki played no role in writing these papers; she 'never meaningfully contributed to the research beyond scanning a page or two for commas and grammar errors,' Jeziorski said in the court documents. Concurrent with Michelidaki's request for co-authorship, he said she also messaged Jeziorski on Slack demanding more child support. Jeziorski wrote to the court that the two negotiated he would pay 30,000 euros (more than $34,000 in U.S. funds today) per year in child support, in addition to paying for their children's private school tuition. 'Your child support is now 120k per year,' Michelidaki messaged, according to the court documents. 'If you would like to change the mediated agreement please contact my lawyer,' Jeziorski responded. 'I do not want to talk about it in the work slack channel. Also, please do not contact me about extra money demands or with threats of lawsuits of any kind.' Michelidaki responded, 'search up the term threats as you don't know how to use it.' She then threatened to report Jeziorski for plagiarism again to his senior colleague in the marketing department of Haas, 'I'll get paid for my work one way or another. I'll write a book too. I have so many plans for this year!!!' 'Although I know her threats are baseless, I am still intimidated by her actions,' Jeziorski wrote to the court. 'Her baseless allegations will harm my economic prospects for employment and completely damage my reputation in the intellectual community, regardless of their truth.' Court documents show Michelidaki threatened to call police on Jeziorski. As a part of Jeziorski's responsibilities as a tenured professor at Haas, he threw a graduation reception this spring for recent graduates at an Airbnb rental property he co-owned with Michelidaki in Berkeley. Jeziorski said he independently rented the property on Airbnb for the event. 'I know you are at the property,' Michelidaki wrote in an email. 'Do you really want to deal with the police during the party with your students?'
The Irish Sun
6 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Ex-wife's chilling post weeks before she ‘got boyfriend to shoot dead her college professor ex-husband' in Greece
THE ex-wife of a "murdered" professor made a chilling post weeks before she allegedly got her boyfriend to shoot her ex-husband. Nadia Michelidaki, 43, and her boyfriend Christos Dounias, 35, were arrested for the fatal shooting of Advertisement 7 Przemysław Jeziorski was killed in broad daylight in Athens, Greece, his family said Credit: WhyDonate 7 Ex-wife Nadia Michelidaki has been arrested Credit: Facebook 7 Michelidaki's boyfriend Christos Dounias was also arrested Credit: Facebook 7 A chilling Facebook post made by Nadia Michelidaki before her ex-husband's death Credit: Facebook Dad-of-two professor Jeziorski, 43, was heinously shot five times in broad daylight in Athens, Greece, near his ex-wife's house on July 4. He had been visiting the country to see his two children, as well as attend a family custody hearing. And couple of months prior to his tragic death, ex-wife Michelidaki had shared an AI-produced image showing a man in a suit surrounded by cash with an unhappy expression on his face. Tagging her new boyfriend, she wrote: "When you realise that you picked the best dad for your kids." Advertisement read more news Alleged murderer Michelidaki and Professor Jeziorski had reportedly been going through a custody battle at the time he was killed, according to cops. Michelidaki and Dounias planned the horrific murder, Greek authorities said, adding that Dounias was the one who pulled the trigger as Jeziorski arrived to pick up his children. Three other people - two Albanian nationals and one Bulgarian - were also arrested in the tragedy. They are accused of providing the deadly weapon and transporting the gunman. Advertisement Most read in The US Sun Michelidaki's lawyer told CNN she denies any involvement in Jeziorski's murder. Meanwhile Dounias is said to have confessed to the murder - but said his girlfriend was the mastermind behind it, Greek media reported. Elderly couple, 77 and 83, killed in horror fire after 'arson attack' on their home – as cops probe 'murder' Michelidaki and Jeziorski wed in 2014 before he filed for divorce in 2021. The ex-couple founded a rental property management company together and were apparently fighting over finances. Advertisement Professor Jeziorski had also sought a restraining order against his ex-wife in San Francisco in May as he said he feared for his life, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Before he died, he accused Michelidaki of threatening and exhorting attempts and said Dounias assaulted him twice. In one instance, Dounias allegedly knocked his phone out of his hand and, the same day, kicked and pushed him. Dounias was charged with assault over these incidents from May. Advertisement Jeziorski wrote: "She made me afraid of my life by having her partner, who is hostile and aggressive towards me, [present] during the visitation exchange, despite my asking her not to do so." The professor had also claimed his ex-wife had sent him messages on Slack insisting she got co-authorship on his research and "threatening to 'contact my colleagues and the dean of my department if I did not pay her money.'" 7 Nadia Michelidaki made a chilling post weeks before her ex's death Credit: Facebook 7 Professor Jeziorski leaves behind two children Credit: Facebook Advertisement Jeziorski explained he thought Michelidaki was attempting to "humiliate" him "socially in order to control me." He added in writing: "Although I know her threats are baseless, I am still intimidated by her actions. "Her baseless allegations will harm my economic prospects for employment and completely damage my reputation in the intellectual community, regardless of their truth." After the heinous muder, his ex-wife said she didn't know of anyone who would have wanted to harm him. Advertisement Jeziorski's grieving family said in a statement: "Przemek loved his children and fought for them until the end. "He paid the heaviest price, unnecessarily, for this. "This summer, he wanted to bring his children to his hometown of Gdynia, Poland. "This death and the circumstances surrounding it remain impossible for us to accept, but we find some measure of comfort knowing that progress is being made toward justice, and that the kids are about to reunite with their family into a safe environment." Advertisement The ex-couple's two young children are now in the care of Greek child custody, Jeziorski's brother confirmed in a statement. 7 The ex-couple's two young children are now in the care of Greek child custody Credit: Facebook
Scottish Sun
6 days ago
- Scottish Sun
Ex-wife's chilling post weeks before she ‘got boyfriend to shoot dead her college professor ex-husband' in Greece
THE ex-wife of a "murdered" professor made a chilling post weeks before she allegedly got her boyfriend to shoot her ex-husband. Nadia Michelidaki, 43, and her boyfriend Christos Dounias, 35, were arrested for the fatal shooting of US Berkeley professor Przemysław Jeziorski. Advertisement 7 Przemysław Jeziorski was killed in broad daylight in Athens, Greece, his family said Credit: WhyDonate 7 Ex-wife Nadia Michelidaki has been arrested Credit: Facebook 7 Michelidaki's boyfriend Christos Dounias was also arrested Credit: Facebook 7 A chilling Facebook post made by Nadia Michelidaki before her ex-husband's death Credit: Facebook Dad-of-two professor Jeziorski, 43, was heinously shot five times in broad daylight in Athens, Greece, near his ex-wife's house on July 4. He had been visiting the country to see his two children, as well as attend a family custody hearing. And couple of months prior to his tragic death, ex-wife Michelidaki had shared an AI-produced image showing a man in a suit surrounded by cash with an unhappy expression on his face. Tagging her new boyfriend, she wrote: "When you realise that you picked the best dad for your kids." Advertisement Alleged murderer Michelidaki and Professor Jeziorski had reportedly been going through a custody battle at the time he was killed, according to cops. Michelidaki and Dounias planned the horrific murder, Greek authorities said, adding that Dounias was the one who pulled the trigger as Jeziorski arrived to pick up his children. Three other people - two Albanian nationals and one Bulgarian - were also arrested in the tragedy. They are accused of providing the deadly weapon and transporting the gunman. Advertisement Michelidaki's lawyer told CNN she denies any involvement in Jeziorski's murder. Meanwhile Dounias is said to have confessed to the murder - but said his girlfriend was the mastermind behind it, Greek media reported. Elderly couple, 77 and 83, killed in horror fire after 'arson attack' on their home – as cops probe 'murder' Michelidaki and Jeziorski wed in 2014 before he filed for divorce in 2021. The ex-couple founded a rental property management company together and were apparently fighting over finances. Advertisement Professor Jeziorski had also sought a restraining order against his ex-wife in San Francisco in May as he said he feared for his life, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Before he died, he accused Michelidaki of threatening and exhorting attempts and said Dounias assaulted him twice. In one instance, Dounias allegedly knocked his phone out of his hand and, the same day, kicked and pushed him. Dounias was charged with assault over these incidents from May. Advertisement Jeziorski wrote: "She made me afraid of my life by having her partner, who is hostile and aggressive towards me, [present] during the visitation exchange, despite my asking her not to do so." The professor had also claimed his ex-wife had sent him messages on Slack insisting she got co-authorship on his research and "threatening to 'contact my colleagues and the dean of my department if I did not pay her money.'" 7 Nadia Michelidaki made a chilling post weeks before her ex's death Credit: Facebook 7 Professor Jeziorski leaves behind two children Credit: Facebook Advertisement Jeziorski explained he thought Michelidaki was attempting to "humiliate" him "socially in order to control me." He added in writing: "Although I know her threats are baseless, I am still intimidated by her actions. "Her baseless allegations will harm my economic prospects for employment and completely damage my reputation in the intellectual community, regardless of their truth." After the heinous muder, his ex-wife said she didn't know of anyone who would have wanted to harm him. Advertisement Jeziorski's grieving family said in a statement: "Przemek loved his children and fought for them until the end. "He paid the heaviest price, unnecessarily, for this. "This summer, he wanted to bring his children to his hometown of Gdynia, Poland. "This death and the circumstances surrounding it remain impossible for us to accept, but we find some measure of comfort knowing that progress is being made toward justice, and that the kids are about to reunite with their family into a safe environment." Advertisement The ex-couple's two young children are now in the care of Greek child custody, Jeziorski's brother confirmed in a statement.
