Deputy sheriff is sued over shooting into home

No charges were filed in the shooting.

YOUNGSTOWN — A Boardman couple has filed a lawsuit stemming from an August shooting into their home by an off-duty Mahoning County deputy sheriff who was aiming for a raccoon.

Karen and Dominic DeSalvo, of Buchanan Drive, filed the lawsuit Thursday through their attorney, Brian Kish, against Maj. James Lewandowski, also of Buchanan Drive. The suit seeks unspecified damages.

The suit says that Lewandowski and the DeSalvos had different opinions regarding a zoning issue in their neighborhood and had argued about it. Shortly after that argument, Lewandowski applied to become Boardman’s police chief.

Dominic DeSalvo “expressed to members of the community their opinion that [Lewandowski] would not be a good choice for the chief of police position,” the lawsuit said. Lewandowski learned of the statements and it “further strained the relationship” between them.

Patrick Berarducci was named the township chief in late 2006.

On Aug. 20, Lewandowski fired a gun from his backyard and the bullet went through a wall of the DeSalvo home, missing Karen DeSalvo “by mere inches.”

According to a police report filed at the time, Lewandowski told police that he was trying to shoot a raccoon that he believed was ill.

Township police “during the seven days in which it claimed to be investigating the shooting, failed to conduct any meaningful investigation that would have pinpointed” Lewandowski’s “precise location, the location of the alleged sick raccoon at the time of the shooting or take any steps to trap or locate the alleged sick raccoon after the shooting,” the lawsuit says.

Police previously told The Vindicator that they dropped the investigation on the advice of county prosecutors. The township has no law that forbids discharging a firearm within its limits, prosecutors have said.

Lewandowski couldn’t be reached.

No charges were filed.

The suit says that Karen DeSalvo suffers from emotional distress and has had to begin counseling and she “remains too afraid to sleep in the marital bed” located in the back of the home.