Milton School custodian sues village, police over dismissed rape case

Jerry North, the West Milton man accused last year of rape of a child while custodian at Milton Union Elementary School before the boy later recanted, has filed a civil lawsuit against police and others in U.S. District Court in Dayton.

The suit was filed earlier this month against the village of West Milton, Police Chief Doyle Wright, officers James Leonard and Jason Stevens; the parents of the then-alleged victim; and Jennifer Knisley of Isaiah’s Place in Troy, a social worker who interviewed the boy on behalf of the police department.

The suit claims the defendants acted “in willful, reckless and callous disregard of plaintiff’s (North) rights under federal and state law.”

The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages that would be set at a trial.

West Milton Village Manager Jeff Sheridan said the village would have no comment.

North was arrested in May 2023 and accused of sexual misconduct between 2018 and 2021 with a boy who claimed he had been sexually molested. North pleaded not guilty to rape, gross sexual imposition and intimidation of a victim or witness in Miami County Common Pleas Court.

He was scheduled to go on trial earlier this year when two days before the boy, now age 11, told prosecutors and victim advocates that he fabricated the allegations.

A civil lawsuit was filed against the school district last fall in county Common Pleas Court by the parents of the child, claiming the schools were told about suspected harassment and abuse but failed to properly investigate and report the allegations to law enforcement.

The lawsuit later was moved to federal court in Dayton. It was dismissed after the boy changed his story.

In the civil rights lawsuit, North’s attorneys claim, “The Defendants, with knowledge that they lacked evidence sufficient to arrest, unlawfully arrested, incarcerated, maliciously prosecuted and defamed Plaintiff. The Defendants conspired to do these acts in the hope that the media attention from the Plaintiff’s arrest and public humiliation would be enough to prompt witnesses to come forward and provide support for the baseless charges. When no evidence materialized, the police officers falsified information in the official report to make it appear that it had.”

The alleged misuse of police power harmed North physically, emotionally and financially, the lawsuit claims.