Peabody woman sues Lynn, cop

SALEM – A Peabody woman filed a lawsuit in Essex County Superior Court Thursday against the city of Lynn and a Lynn police officer, claiming that the officer mistakenly sought an arrest warrant against her that landed the 57-year-old grandmother in the Lynn District Court lockup for over four hours, according to the lawsuit.?Somebody dropped the ball somewhere,” said Stoneham attorney Paul Anthony, who is representing the woman, Georgianna Caminero, in the suit. Caminero filed the lawsuit against the city of Lynn and Police Officer Ross Panacopoulos, seeking more than $250,000 in damages for the medical expenses and humiliation she suffered after being falsely arrested.Anthony sent a letter to Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy on Oct. 27, 2010 detailing the circumstances surrounding the suit and asking for a $75,000 settlement, but said no one from the city ever responded to it, or to any other letters he sent.According to Anthony?s letter, the events leading to Caminero?s false imprisonment began on Aug. 13, 2010, when a woman reported to Panacopoulos at Lynn Police headquarters that she had been attacked by three women whose names and addresses she said she knew. Panacopoulos reportedly showed the woman photos of two of the women that helped her positively identify them, but did not show her a photo of the woman allegedly named Georgianna Caminero. The victim also told Panacopoulos that the third attacker, alleged to be Caminero, shared a name and a house with her mother.Calling Caminero “the nicest woman in the world,” Anthony said the grandmother of several children was panicking and hysterical when she received a warrant in the mail for her arrest, especially since she had been at work at the time of the alleged incident. He said he told her to stay in her house over the weekend until they could go to the courthouse and work out what he saw as a mistake.But things weren?t as easy to resolve in court as Anthony thought.Upon arriving at Lynn District Court at 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 23, 2010, Anthony and Caminero went into the clerk?s office, where Caminero was told she had to be taken into custody under their policy.?The warrant said, ?Turn yourself in to avoid arrest,? so we went down to the courthouse and they arrested her,” Anthony said. “They said it would only take an hour, but she was there for four and a half hours.”The lawsuit also alleges that unnamed Lynn officers working the front desk at the department refused to get into contact with Panacopoulos because his shift didn?t start until 6 p.m. While she waited to be booked, the lawsuit alleges, Caminero endured harsh conditions in the lock-up, including having to use the bathroom in front of several accused criminals.?Panacopoulos failed to investigate the alleged incident in a professional manner,” Anthony wrote in the letter, adding that the Lynn officer “failed to rectify the situation at the expense, time and humiliation of Mrs. Caminero.”During a conversation with Panacopoulos on the same day as Caminero?s first court appearance, Anthony told the policeman that Caminero?s daughter does not live at the same residence as his client, nor does she have the same name. He said he requested that Panacopoulos show Caminero?s booking photo to the alleged victim and have her state that she was not the third suspect in the attack, and to then contact the District Attorney to have the case against Caminero dismissed, which he reportedly did not do.?It?s a waste of time and the police report reads the victim said there were surveillance cameras, but the only identifying mark was a name and address, and that?s not enough to go on,” Anthony said.The original complaint filed by the alleged victim against the three women never went through a court system, according to Anthony, and the charge against Caminero was dismissed before trial, according to the lawsuit.?Nobody really wants to listen to ?my client?s innocent,? but it?s the truth,” Anthony said. “Everyone says it so people get im