Squatters allegedly broke in and established residency in the home of a slain University of California, Berkeley, professor, who was shot dead in Greece last year amid a bitter custody dispute with his ex-wife.
Attorneys for the family of Przemyslaw Jeziorski said a Berkeley home belonging to the professor was burglarized in December, with a female suspect reporting the crime to police to portray the squatters as tenants.
Court records show that the alleged squatters claimed they signed a one-year lease with Jeziorski’s ex-wife, Konstantina “Nadia” Michelidaki, and paid her $30,000 up front to stay at the residence.
Attorney Erin Stratte said Jeziorski and Michelidaki owned several properties. The one targeted by squatters had been frequently rented out as an Airbnb.
Ms. Stratte said the squatters’ tenancy claim isn’t viable because Michelidaki was behind bars in Greece in connection with Jeziorski’s July 2025 slaying.
“Even though it is a clear impossibility, the court will not presently act to evict and the police currently refuse to remove them under color of a California law that needs to be changed,” Ms. Stratte said in a news release announcing the legal saga.
“Nadia could not have entered a lease with these criminal squatters as she had no access to computers or English-speaking agents that would enable her to complete such a contract,” she said.
In May, Greek authorities said Michelidaki was found dead in her Athens prison cell from a suspected suicide.
California law treats the occupants of a home as de facto tenants after 30 days, making it harder to remove ne’er-do-well squatters who exploit the legal loophole.
Local NBC affiliate KNTV reported that no one answered the front door when journalists tried knocking. The news station also called the house number listed on court documents, but the line had been disconnected.
Family attorneys said the squatters damaged a century-old wall adjacent to the property, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
The death of Jeziorski, who taught marketing and economics at UC Berkeley, came when a masked gunman shot him several times right outside his ex-wife’s home on July 4, 2025, said Athens police.
Relatives said Jeziorski, a Polish native, was in Greece for a custody hearing regarding the couple’s twin 11-year-old children. He had gone to court the day before he was killed.
Michelidaki’s new boyfriend pleaded guilty to killing Jeziorski last year, telling authorities that he “did it all for” her.
Three other accomplices also pleaded guilty for their roles in Jeziorski’s slaying, but Michelidaki fought the charges up until her suspected suicide behind bars.
Roughly two months before Jeziorski was killed, ABC News reported that he filed a domestic violence restraining order in California against his ex-wife. They were married from 2014 to 2024.
The order alleged that Michelidaki’s boyfriend attacked Jeziorski twice during visitations to his children.
Jeziorski also accused his wife of financially blackmailing him by threatening to contact his bosses at UC Berkeley and claim he stole research.
A California court denied Jeziorski’s request for the restraining order because it said his claims of abuse lacked proof.
Jeziorski’s brother, Lukasz Jeziorski, said he’s still paying the mortgage on the property occupied by the squatters while raising the 11-year-old twins.
“They are stealing from the two orphans,” Mr. Jeziorski told KNTV. “If you ask me what I think about them, I feel nothing good. I feel that they are very bad people.”
