Lawsuit against ex-husband dismissed

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — A federal judge has dismissed a $1 million civil lawsuit by a Salem woman against her ex-husband and a Boardman police sergeant.

The woman’s suit said she was wrongly arrested and jailed for an assault against her former husband that she did not commit.

U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. recently dismissed the lawsuit filed by Leeza Perry of Valley Road, against Russell DeMaris, who complained that Perry assaulted him during a domestic quarrel in their Stuart Avenue residence, and against Sgt. Charles Hillman, who issued the arrest warrant for her Aug. 12, 2008.

The judge dismissed the civil case after lawyers for Perry and Hillman filed a notice agreeing to the dismissal. Since the incident, Perry and DeMaris have divorced.

The dismissal followed a notice from DeMaris’ Hamilton, Ohio, lawyer that DeMaris, who now lives in Maineville, Ohio, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dayton, and that the bankruptcy judge had halted all other proceedings against him.

In her lawsuit, Perry said she was arrested Aug. 22, 2008, without probable cause, and that the felonious-assault charge against her was dismissed Oct. 31, 2008, after a preliminary hearing in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman.

In his answer to the lawsuit and in a recent interview, Hillman, who was the investigating detective, said he acted reasonably and with probable cause in accordance with his law-enforcement duties.

Perry had initially sued in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in November, but the complaint was transferred to federal court because it alleged the arrest violated the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.