False arrest lawsuit dismissed

Staff report

AKRON

A federal judge has dismissed a false-arrest lawsuit by a former employee-union president at Youngstown State University, saying it was untimely filed and that any claims under state law must first be filed in the Ohio Court of Claims.

U.S. District Judge John R. Adams recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by Ivan Maldonado, former president of the Association of Classified Employees at YSU, saying Maldonado had two years to sue after his March 31, 2009, arrest, but missed the deadline because he didn’t sue until June 27, 2011.

Maldonado sued Mary Kay Helscel, a university employee who accused him of threatening her, and university police Lt. Michael Cretella, alleging Cretella performed an inadequate investigation.

Maldonado was acquitted of a menacing charge in Youngstown Municipal Court and acquitted of theft, falsification and tampering with records in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

An arbitrator ruled in July that Maldonado be reinstated to his job as a university payroll assistant, from which he was fired in 2009.