Ex-DeKalb superintendent arrested after physical dispute with wife, police say

Former DeKalb County Superintendent Devon Horton was arrested Saturday after police officers determined a verbal dispute with his wife turned physical.

A spokesperson for the DeKalb County Police Department said Sunday that officers responded to a domestic call on Chedworth Lane in Stone Mountain. Property records show that’s where Horton and his wife own a home.

He was arrested Saturday afternoon and booked into the jail on two charges: aggravated assault/strangulation and cruelty to children in the third degree. Children were present at the time of the assault, the police spokesperson said.

Horton was hired to lead the state’s third-largest school district in 2023. He resigned in October after he was indicted on federal charges in Illinois related to a kickback scheme at his old job.

The indictment accused Horton of steering district contracts in the Evanston-Skokie School District 65 outside of Chicago to his longtime friends, then getting about $85,000 in kickbacks from the contracts between 2020 and 2023.

Horton was the district’s superintendent during that time period. He was also accused of misusing his district-issued purchasing card and tax evasion.

Horton pleaded not guilty to those charges.