A Dream in Ruins : Builder Convicted of Arson Flees, Leaving Wife to Face Prison

America was good to Constantine Pappadopoulos, but not quite good enough.

He arrived here from Greece in the late 1960s, a bright young man possessing little more than pocket change and a zeal to get ahead. Within 20 years, he had done just that, earning a fortune in the land development business and a place among Sacramento’s elite.

But on June 3, his life of accomplishment crumbled as a jury convicted Pappadopoulos, known as Koko, and his wife, Katherine, of arson in the torching of their $3-million mansion. Facing a future behind bars, the millionaire chose another course--fleeing to Greece and abandoning the land where he had achieved so much.

Pappadopoulos says he returned home in search of proof that will clear his name. But he has left a distraught wife facing 10 years in prison and his son Demetri, who graduated from high school last month without a father in the crowd.

And then there are the developer’s friends, neighbors, fellow church members and business partners. How, they were left to wonder, could the devout, dedicated entrepreneur they knew have gone so far astray?

“He jumped bail and fled and basically left his wife here holding the bag,” said attorney Donald Heller, an old friend who represented Pappadopoulos at the arson trial and had planned to appeal the conviction. “This whole thing is just a tragedy. I believe in our system and when someone disregards it, it’s very disturbing.”

Prosecutors are also disturbed. Just two days after a federal court jury handed them a major victory by convicting the couple, Pappadopoulos--who had surrendered his passport as a condition of remaining free on bail--somehow managed to hop a plane to Athens.

Because a treaty prevents the United States from extraditing Greek citizens, prosecutors face long odds in their quest to bring the fugitive back. This fact is not lost on Pappadopoulos, 49, who placed a telephone call to the U.S. attorney’s office shortly after leaving town.

“He called to let us know he was in Greece, so we wouldn’t waste a lot of time running around looking for him,” U.S. Atty. Robert M. Twiss said in an interview. “His attitude was kind of an in-your-face thing. He said he wasn’t coming back, and he even faxed us . . . his travel itinerary and boarding pass.”

As for Katherine Pappadopoulos, 48, she was placed under house arrest after her husband fled. Until her sentencing in August, she must wear an ankle bracelet that triggers an alarm if she strays beyond her yard. She also must forfeit $1 million in cash or property--perhaps including her elderly mother’s home--because her husband jumped bail.

There is one other thing: After 25 years of marriage, Katherine Pappadopoulos does not know if she will ever see her husband again.

“She is a proud person, and does not want to say anything harsh about her husband,” said John Panneton, her lawyer. “But she is very upset. It is difficult for her to accept that he has left her here alone to serve her sentence.”

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The neighbors were not fond of the house at 1821 Maple Glen Road. Indeed, when the architectural plans were unveiled, residents of the affluent Arden Oaks community circulated petitions to keep it from being built.

It was an imposing place--two stories of red brick with towering chimneys, stately columns beside the front door, a wrought iron fence, security gates and 11,000 square feet of space in all.

“It was so gaudy, it just didn’t fit in,” said one neighbor who asked not to be named. “There was a lot of yelling and screaming when they put that thing up.”

The fuss, however, did not deter the mansion’s owners. Constantine and Katherine Pappadopoulos had waited a long time to create their dream house, and this, their friends said, was it.

The house took three years to build, and Katherine Pappadopoulos was on hand full time to supervise. No decorating expense was spared--hand-carved cherry banisters, Venetian chandeliers, an extensive collection of art from Europe, even ivory tusks in the foyer.

There were frequent parties, and the couple often loaned their home to charities for fashion shows and Greek cultural celebrations. Art Agnos, the former San Francisco mayor, was one of several politicians who held fund-raisers there.

“It was like ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ with all the fancy cars and parties,” said Katie Youngren, who lives next door and was friends with the Pappadopoulos’ eldest son, George. “They always seemed to be having a wild time.”

The fun ended last September, when a pre-dawn explosion and fire tore through the mansion. The Pappadopouloses were vacationing in Greece, and when they returned to Maple Glen Road, the only remnants of their palatial estate were the gazebo, a basketball hoop and the koi pond out back.

Authorities suspected foul play, and their hunch was confirmed when they found empty cans of lacquer thinner in a charred Mercedes in the garage. The car belonged to George Orfanos, a family friend who disappeared after the fire.

Two months later, the mystery vaulted into the headlines when police arrested Koko and Katherine Pappadopoulos, charging them with orchestrating the destruction of their dream house. The motive: an insurance payoff of more than $4.5 million.

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Prosecutors built their case, in a sense, on the California recession. According to their theory, Koko Pappadopoulos lived a rags-to-riches life and panicked when the state’s economic slump began to drain those riches away.

Pappadopoulos arrived in Sacramento in 1968. He worked first as a busboy, but before long had saved enough to launch his own business painting apartment buildings. Sweat, ingenuity and a connection with Stockton-based developer Alex Spanos--owner of the San Diego Chargers football team--helped the venture take off.

By 1980, Pappadopoulos had put down his paintbrush and was developing the apartments himself. Through the last decade, his company, Metron Enterprises Inc., was one of the busiest development firms in the region.

“He’s a bright, dynamic, forceful personality,” said Dr. Robert Ripley, a retired physician who was a partner with Pappadopoulos in a 600-unit project. His tactics, however, tended to invite lawsuits--more than a dozen in as many years. In 1992, Ripley and four other plaintiffs won $316,000 in damages after suing Pappadopoulos for misappropriation of funds and breach of fiduciary duty.

At the arson trial, prosecutors presented evidence suggesting, in the words of U.S. Atty. Twiss, that the Pappadopouloses’ “financial empire was falling apart.” There was a $60,000 gambling debt to a South Lake Tahoe casino, a $2.4-million federal income tax assessment, a recent loan taken against their life insurance policy, the Ripley lawsuit and other burdens.

Faced with that, Twiss said, Pappadopoulos “got desperate” and decided to sacrifice his house and its contents for quick cash.

Defense attorneys called the theory nonsense. They charged that business disagreements had prompted Orfanos, a painter who frequently worked for Pappadopoulos, to set the fire.

Orfanos “was bitter and he knew this home was their statement of success and their prize,” Heller said in an interview. “So he burned it down.”

Moreover, the defense argued that Pappadopoulos could easily have liquidated assets to come up with cash had his needs been dire. It was beyond belief, the defense maintained, to suggest that the couple would destroy their beloved home, sacrificing priceless family heirlooms and their sons’ cherished baptismal clothes.

In the end, however, the defense team faced a “smoking gun” that they could not effectively refute: a cassette tape of conversations between Orfanos and the Pappadopouloses. While the conversations--mostly in Greek--do not specifically mention an arson plot, they include a discussion of Orfanos entering the mansion to perform some secret task.

“We argued that the tape was ambiguous,” Heller said. “Unfortunately, the jury disagreed.”

Three days after the verdict, Pappadopoulos put on a pair of khaki slacks and a golf shirt and told his wife he was setting off for the links. Instead, he caught a ride to San Francisco International Airport. There, he later told prosecutors, he paid a United Airlines ticket agent $2,000 to let him board a plane to Athens without a passport.

In telephone calls to his wife and attorney, Pappadopoulos said he fled because he has lost faith in the American legal system and hopes to find proof that he and his wife committed no crime. Specifically, Pappadopoulos says he intends to find Orfanos and extract a videotaped confession that he alone planned the fire.

A week ago, those plans suffered a setback when Pappadopoulos was hospitalized in Athens with chest pains. This development has added to his wife’s distress.

“She’s absolutely destroyed over this,” says Heller, who has known the couple and their two sons for years.

As for prosecutors, they are preparing a formal extradition request, hoping the Greek government will cooperate.

“It’s very aggravating to go through the trouble and expense to prosecute someone, get a jury finding of guilty and then not be able to put him in jail,” Twiss said. “But even in a worst-case scenario--even if we never get him--he will never be able to come home or go anywhere . . . without fear of being apprehended.”