A former Evanston-Skokie School District 65 superintendent has been arrested in DeKalb County, Georgia, where he took another school superintendent job after leaving Evanston in 2023, per Dekalb County police.
The former superintendent, Devon Horton, is already embattled after federal prosecutors in Chicago brought charges against him in October over a kickback scheme, and alleged he misused District 65 funds.
DeKalb County police said they responded to a domestic call Saturday, Jan. 16, at Horton’s home in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Officers determined that a verbal dispute between Horton and his wife turned physical, according to a statement from the police department. They arrested him and accused him of aggravated assault, a felony, and cruelty to children in the 3rd degree, a misdemeanor, because children were present in the home at the time of the alleged assault.
Dekalb County jail records described the felony charge as aggravated assault — strangulation.
Horton’s attorney Terence Campbell did not immediately return a request for comment.
Horton was already under a cloud of legal proceedings after the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois’ office indicted him in October 2025 for his role in what prosecutors described as a kickback scheme during the time he led Evanston/Skokie District 65. Horton, who was District 65 superintendent from 2019 through 2023, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago, per previous reporting.
Federal prosecutors alleged in an Oct. 9 indictment that Horton had steered D65 work contracts to the companies of three friends, who were also educators. The scheme called for those companies to be paid from D65 funds for doing little work, and the friends would give Horton kickbacks totaling about $81,000, as well as other money, according to the indictment.
After the federal government indicted Horton on Oct. 9, D65 Board then-President Sergio Hernandez and Vice President Nichole Pinkard wrote in a statement, “We are deeply troubled and angered by these allegations.”
They acknowledged that the district had worked with federal investigators who were looking into the district’s finances but could not discuss the matter in order not to compromise the investigation.
Before being hired by District 65, Horton was the chief of schools for Jefferson County in Kentucky for five years.
Horton began his career as a Chicago Public Schools teacher before becoming a principal and then assistant superintendent for East St. Louis Public School District 189. According to news reports, Horton received a bachelor’s degree in education from Jackson State University, and a master’s degree and doctorate from Chicago State University.
Watch for updates on this developing story.
