Three years ago, two sixth graders were accused of committing a hate crime in Evanston, Illinois. In March, The Free Press published my investigation into the incident, which found that the accusations were exaggerated and unfounded.

At the heart of the story was Devon Horton, the former school superintendent for Evanston/Skokie School District 65. He erroneously described three nooses found in a schoolyard as “a deliberate and specific incidence of an outwardly racist act.”

Yesterday, we learned that Horton has been indicted for fraud.

The 17-count indictment in the Northern District Court of Illinois alleged that Horton and three friends cheated District 65, the Chicago Public Schools, and the federal government by creating companies that applied for—and won—contracts with District 65 while Horton was superintendent. Those companies then made payments to Horton, either directly or through an unidentified sibling, according to the indictment.

Throughout the contract process, Horton and his friends allegedly concealed their relationships and financial involvement in the companies. He illegally received over $80,000 from the scheme, federal prosecutors said.

Horton, 48, couldn’t be reached for comment. The Evanston school district’s current superintendent told families and employees in an email on Thursday that school officials had been “aware of the ongoing investigation” and are “deeply troubled and angered by these allegations.”

In the summer of 2023, Horton left District 65 to run the DeKalb County School District, the third-largest school district in Georgia.

After Horton was indicted, a DeKalb County School District spokesperson said that he has been put on paid leave. A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said that the district is cooperating with authorities and that the “reports of alleged misconduct by school leaders are deeply concerning.”

Horton’s indictment has no obvious connection to Horton’s handling of the hate-crime accusations I investigated. Earlier this year, I reported that the two sixth graders were vilified as racist, after one of the boys tied three jump ropes into nooses and left them in a tree. The other boy was just an onlooker.

A police investigation was launched. Horton, who had been celebrated for his “antiracist” approach to education, described the reactions to the noose incident and to his work on “equity” as “outright racist.” About a month later, police concluded that no hate crime had occurred and the nooses were not race-related, but were likely “a cry for help.”

The report said that the boy responsible for putting the nooses in the trees “has some very serious mental health issues and has tied knots previously as a soothing technique.”

That boy left the school. So did the other sixth grader, who had witnessed the incident. That boy’s father, Mike Klotz, told me earlier this year that Horton was “a comic book–level villain” who used a story about a hate crime to distract the people of Evanston from his own incompetence. After what happened, the Klotz family felt they had no choice but to leave progressive Evanston.

When I spoke to Klotz after the indictment, he told me that “it should come as no surprise that a person who is willing to put children who he is entrusted to protect in danger for his own personal gain would be somebody who would also steal tax money earmarked for the betterment of students for his own benefit.”

Horton began as superintendent of District 65 in July 2020. In October 2020, The Wall Street Journal featured him in an article with the headline “Can School Be ‘Antiracist’? A New Superintendent in Evanston, Ill., Has a Plan.” The article said that Horton wanted to give “students from marginalized groups first priority” to return to in-person learning after the pandemic and was encouraging teachers to no longer base grades on whether students completed their homework. “If you’re not antiracist,” Horton said, “we can’t have you in front of our students.”

In January 2021, Horton said that school board members and administrators had received death threats because of the district’s antiracism policies. He was provided with a personal security team for seven months, at a reported cost of $50,000 a month. Police later said that they had received no reports of death threats against Horton or other threats against school employees.

The indictment alleged that Horton was awarded a contract in 2021 or 2022 from Chicago Public Schools that was valued at about $10,000. The contract included Horton’s own company, called Altering the Education Xpectation, and was allegedly awarded through “false and fraudulent representations” by Horton and one of his friends, Antonio Ross. Ross was principal of Hyde Park Academy High School, a public school in Chicago.

Prosecutors said that Ross’s consulting company, Connecting The Dots, won contracts with District 65 worth about $139,500, though neither he nor Horton disclosed their friendship during the bidding process. Horton allegedly received $41,900.

“It should come as no surprise that a person who is willing to put children who he is entrusted to protect in danger for his own personal gain would be somebody who would also steal tax money earmarked for the betterment of students for his own benefit.” —Mike Klotz

Another friend of Horton’s while he was school superintendent in Evanston, Samuel Ross, won approximately $119,500 in contracts with District 65. Horton allegedly received $30,800. According to the indictment, the school superintendent got an additional $9,000 from Alfonzo Lewis, the Hyde Park Academy High School athletic director, who also owned a company called New Flight 35 Sports & Academic Academy and won $24,500 in contracts with District 65. The other defendants couldn’t be reached for comment.

Horton was accused of failing to disclose the income he received from these contracts in required yearly reports to the school district or in tax returns. Horton also allegedly used at least $5,000 in school district funds for his personal expenses.

In May, the Donald Trump administration launched a civil rights investigation of District 65, accusing the school district of “unlawfully segregating students by race, instructing students to step forward and others to step back on the basis of race, and associating ‘whiteness’ with the devil.” The status of the investigation couldn’t be determined.

On top of this, District 65 is now facing a financial crisis, attempting to cut $10 million to $15 million from its budget by 2027, and considering closing as many as four schools before the start of the next school year. The district ended its latest fiscal year with a deficit of $710,000 and has a budget of $188 million this year.

“While District 65 was unmoved by my family’s experience with Dr. Horton, maybe they will be moved by this,” Klotz said. “I wish them the best with their financial struggles.”