Suit alleges Greyhound knew of manager's offenses

Greyhound Bus Co. allowed their Waukegan office to be managed by a man who had repeatedly been convicted of sex offenses against passengers, a lawsuit filed in Lake County Circuit Court claims.

Ramesh Jeswani, whose age and address are unknown, was convicted of three misdemeanor offenses between 1998 and 2006 and also had two additional complaints filed against him in the Greyhound system.

"This goes beyond the idea that corporate systems did not know what was going on," Waukegan attorney Donald Morrison said. "They simply ignored this and allowed it to go on."

Greyhound officials and the company's attorneys could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

According to the complaint, Jeswani was hired in 1995 to manage the Greyhound station at Grand and MaCaree avenues in Waukegan.

In 1998, Jeswani was charged and convicted of solicitation of a sexual act at his place of employment and placed on probation.

In 2000 and 2006, Jeswani was again convicted of sex-related misdemeanors in connection with his job, Morrison said, and two other complaints were filed against him through Greyhound's corporate system in 2002 and 2003.

In all of the incidents, he is accused of groping female passengers inside the terminal, and at one point he was ordered to undergo sex offender therapy.

Greyhound fired Jeswani on March 9, 2007, Morrison said, after the company had been notified that they were likely to be sued in regard to his conduct.

All of the claims of Jeswani's misconduct took place at the Waukegan terminal and all were reported through Greyhound's internal complaint system, Morrison said.

Morrison said that Greyhound was served with notice of his lawsuit in 2006 and did not terminate Jeswani until March 9 of last year.