Maldonado false-arrest lawsuit dismissed by judge

Staff report

AKRON

A federal judge has dismissed a false-arrest lawsuit by a former president of the classified employees’ union at Youngstown State University.

U.S. District Judge John R. Adams dismissed Monday the civil lawsuit by Ivan Maldonado, 43, of Euclid Boulevard, Boardman, which was initially filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on June 27, 2011, but later transferred to federal court.

The suit was filed against Mary Kay Helscel, a university employee who accused Maldonado of threatening her, and YSU Police Lt. Michael Cretella, to whom Helscel complained.

Maldonado was acquitted of a criminal misdemeanor menacing charge stemming from that complaint in a June 28, 2010, nonjury trial in Youngstown Municipal Court.

However, Judge Adams ruled that Maldonado’s federal false-arrest claim was untimely because it was filed beyond the two-year statute of limitations after Maldonado’s March 31, 2009, arrest on the menacing charge.

Maldonado must raise any claims of state law violations in the Ohio Court of Claims, the federal judge ruled.

Maldonado, a former YSU employee, still awaits trial in a separate YSU payroll case, in which he is charged with 10 counts of theft, two counts each of falsification and theft in office, and one count each of tampering with records and grand theft.

Maldonado’s jury trial in that criminal case is to begin Feb. 27 before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.