TOLEDO, Ohio — Editor's Note: The video attached to this story is from an October 2023 report on the case.
Ottawa Hills Local School District has settled a portion of a $100 million federal lawsuit filed by parents of three former students who were raped by former district employee Ronald "Donnie" Stevens.
The suit, filed in August of 2023, accuses the district, school board and 17 employees, including Stevens' wife, of suspecting or knowing the sexual abuse was occurring on school grounds over multiple years.
Ronald Stevens was sentenced in 2021 to multiple life sentences after a jury found him guilty of more than 30 charges including multiple counts of rape.
Prosecutors said the crimes occurred between August 2017 and November 2019 and involved at least six teenage boys. Most were Ottawa Hills students at the time, and all of the alleged victims were friends of Stevens' son, who would reportedly go over to his home for sleepovers.
In its response to the lawsuit, filed in October 2024, the district and defendants denied knowledge of the abuse by Stevens.
After submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the settlement documents to the district, 11 Investigates learned that the district settled with one of the victims for $180,000 on Aug. 13, 2024.
The documents state that in exchange for the payment, the victim releases all defendants from the claims with prejudice, which means that the victim cannot refile the suit.
Each side also pays its own attorney's fees and there is a confidentiality and non-disparagement clause in the agreement.
The payment was to be sent by check within 30 days of the agreement to the attorney representing the victim who settled.
11 Investigates spoke to Nick DiCello, the attorney representing the remaining two victims who said that their claims are still moving forward but declined to comment on the one victim's decision to settle.
Ottawa Hills Local Schools Superintendent Adam Fineske, who is named as a defendant in the 2023 filing, emailed 11 Investigates a statement:
"As the lawsuit to which you are referring remains pending, the district has no comment or statement at this time," he said.
11 Investigates also reached out to D. Casey Talbott, one of the attorneys who filed the suit for comment, but those messages were unreturned.