Day 11 of SFMTA trial: On final day, a dramatic scene at the Jelly Donut

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“Demonstrate how you were yelled at,” instructed deputy city attorney Nancy Harris, as she pulled out a plastic chair from the counsel table. She set it in front of the witness stand, where Sanjai Jagdish, a parking enforcement officer for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, was giving testimony. 

“I’m going to be sitting here,” said Harris. “I would like you to pretend that I am you on the day of Jan. 18, 2025.” At this, Jagdish stepped off the stand and prepared to be Elias Georgopoulos.

It was the 11th day in court of Georgopoulos’ suit against the SFMTA, the end of a four-and-half-year road of Georgopoulos’ case against the city for the alleged harassment and discrimination he endured while working as a senior parking-control officer at the agency. 

On Thursday, this reenactment was the last piece of evidence before city attorneys rested their defense, one that argued that Georgopoulos himself was a bully and a serial harasser of his colleagues at the transit agency. The plaintiff was portrayed as a despotic figure who referred to himself as “sergeant,” harassed and targeted other officers (many of whom are Black), and yelled at subordinates. 

Meanwhile, Georgopoulos, who is Latino, claims that he was harassed repeatedly for his race, height, and limp during his employment at the SFMTA parking enforcement office. Last week Georgopoulos, and the psychiatrist hired to assess his mental health for the SFMTA, testified that being called a “spic” by current director of parking enforcement, Shawn McCormick, was the last straw: Georgopoulos, according to witnesses, exploded, and left the SFMTA office for good. McCormick denies ever using an ethnic slur. 

Older court records, which were barred from being included in this case, dovetail with testimony describing Georgopoulos as something of a bully. More than 10 years ago, Georgopoulos was sued twice by coworkers at the SFMTA, for sexual harassment and assault, and again by a limousine driver for allegedly spraying him with pepper spray and punching him in the head.

Despite these suits, and being diagnosed with a paranoid personality disorder in 2012, Georgopoulos remained employed by the agency until he quit, in 2020. 

The case hinges on whether Georgopoulos was, indeed, also harassed on the basis of his race. And whether, after bringing attention to this harrassment, he was targeted by management, which, Georgopoulos says, not only failed to protect him from his tormentors, but wrote him up for incidents in which he was the victim.

The city argues that any punitive actions taken by management against Georgopoulos were due to his own bad behavior, and not his race. 

Tomorrow, following closing statements, the jury will head into deliberations to decide whether Georgopoulos’ claims are more likely than not to be true, and whether he is owed the lost wages and full pension that he forfeited by quitting. But first, the final witness: Sanjai Jagdish.

A dramatic reenactment

Thursday morning, Jagdish, dressed in his SFMTA parking enforcement officer’s uniform, testified that just a few months ago, on Jan. 25, he was driving east on 24th Street in a GO-4 (a small car used by parking enforcement that resembles a golf cart) when a man driving in the opposite direction stuck his head out of his car window, shouting, “Hey, hey!”

That man was Georgopoulos, Jagdish said. Georgopoulos, who has a disabled placard on his car due to his rheumatoid arthritis, demanded that Jagdish ticket a placard-less car that was parked in a nearby blue zone, or have it towed. 

Jagdish was on his way to breakfast at Jelly Donut, a beloved city staple at 24th and South Van Ness Avenue. He told Georgopoulos that he would deal with the car later, and that Georgopoulos was blocking traffic and needed to get out of the way. At this, Jagdish made a U-turn and continued on to Jelly Donut, where he parked the GO-4 in the red zone and prepared to go inside. 

This behavior was entirely legal, said Jagdish. The special privileges of parking-enforcement officers include illegal U-turns and parking. 

“Then what happened?” deputy city attorney Nancy Harris asked. Georgopoulos, sitting alongside his lawyer, shook his head in disapproval. 

Jagdish then stepped down from the witness stand, and approached Harris, sitting in her plastic chair. The two commenced a scene. 

“He parked, opened the door, and jumped out aggressively like this,” said Jagdish, stomping towards Harris, and pointing his finger at her, mere inches from her face. Jagdish-as-Georgopoulos told Harris-as-Jagdish that he was parked in a crosswalk, and that he was going to get a ticket.

“He said, ‘You don’t know me? Do you know who I am?’” exclaimed Jagdish, posturing, now a bit awkwardly, in front of Harris. “‘Do you know Monica?’” 

Jagdish “knew a lot of Monicas,” he replied. 

Georgopoulos then, Jagdish said, named a specific Monica: Monica Georgopoulos, who still worked at the SFMTA as a senior parking-control officer. Not only was Monica going to discipline Jagdish, Georgopoulos told him, but she was in the passenger seat of his car, and had witnessed the whole scene. 

Jagdish looked at the car. It didn’t look like anyone else was in it, but then, it had tinted windows. 

“He was very aggressive, angry,” testified Jagdish, returning to his seat at the witness stand. “That was unsettling, that he would talk to an individual in the public that way … I definitely was scared, seeing a grown man walking towards you, while you’re sitting down.” Following the incident, Elias Georgopoulos, not Monica, reported Jagdish to SFMTA management, and to 311. 

After the conclusion of Jagdish’s testimony, it was Georgopoulos’ final turn to defend himself, along with his wife, who appeared via Zoom. Georgopoulos calmly and carefully approached the witness stand, then announced to the courtroom that he had walked across the courtroom in the same way he approached Jagdish’s vehicle: as a calm, concerned citizen.

But as his testimony wore on, Georgopoulos grew far from calm. 

When asked if he had yelled at Jagdish, or threatened to have him disciplined, Georgopoulos responded as he had through much of the trial thus far: “Absolutely not.” In fact, he said, it was Jagdish, and not himself, who had done the yelling. 

“There is no rule against a private citizen making a complaint against a parking-enforcement officer,” Georgopoulos told the jury, with rising intensity. “His conduct and the way he responded to a citizen” — at this, his voice grew even louder — “was 100 percent not professional.” 

Georgopoulos then denied nearly all of Jagdish’s accusations, as he has done for all witnesses called by the city thus far who have testified against him. 

“I never said Monica is his boss, I would have never made that statement. That’s ridiculous,” exclaimed Georgopoulos, passionately. “I’m just a citizen, just an average citizen.” 

Monica Georgopoulos, appearing via Zoom, testified that she had been in the car, but remained inside during the alleged altercation, because she trusted Georgopoulos knew how to handle the situation.

While Jagdish testified that the window was never rolled down, Monica Georgopoulos said that she did roll down the window, and heard none of the yelling described in Jagdish’s testimony. 

Other witnesses during the trial have testified that Monica Georgopoulos, as a fellow parking-enforcement officer, has been present for many incidents in which Georgopoulos has allegedly yelled at subordinates and at management. In their recollection, she has tugged on his arm to encourage him to leave, or has joined in. 

During her testimony on Thursday, Harris questioned Monica Georgopoulos on her recollection, asking her if she heard her husband yell at Jagdish. She responded that she did not. 

Harris probed further. “Have you EVER witnessed your husband yell in the workplace?” asked Harris. “Never,” Monica Georgopoulos replied. 

Tomorrow, the plaintiff’s attorney and city attorneys will deliver closing remarks, before the jury heads into deliberations and determines what is most likely to be true.