Government Shares Evidence in Horton case; Board Member and Sister to Testify

The case against Dr. Devon Horton, District 65’s superintendent from 2020-23 is moving forward. In October 2025, Horton was indicted for 17 counts of wire fraud, embezzlement and tax fraud relating to his time in Evanston.

Wire Fraud Count 13 Dropped

Prosecutors have dropped one of the 17 counts against Horton. In a motion filed September 3, 2026, prosecutors moved to dismiss Count Thirteen of the indictment. Count Thirteen accused Horton and Antonio Ross of wire fraud:

On or about March 21, 2022, at Evanston, in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, and elsewhere, DEVON HORTON and ANTONIO ROSS, defendants herein, for the purpose of executing the scheme to defraud, knowingly caused to be transmitted by means of wire communication in interstate commerce, certain writings, signs, and signals, namely, an email from HORTON, using an email account held with Google, to ANTONIO ROSS, using an email account held with Google, with an attached invoice that falsely represented that Altering the Education had provided certain professional services to CPS, and which email was processed through servers outside of Illinois; In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343.

This charge was related to Dr. Horton’s side work with his consulting firm, Altering the Education XPectation LLC. I broke this story back in April 2023, Dr. Horton's Consulting Firm; Worked with CPS, Didn't Properly Disclose Relationships. Dr. Horton was doing consulting for the Chicago Public Schools for these services related to "Instructional Leadership Executive Coaching," "Teacher Professional Development on Equity," and "MTSS Professional Development."

According to the invoices, the training sessions he offered to CPS were on District 65 School days, such as May 4, 2022, or May 11, 2022. The invoice in question was for $10,000.

In 2024, when he was applying for the job in DeKalb County, Georgia, Horton claimed he had permission from the District 65 Board President for this work:

“We have a process where we have to report … if we work secondary employment with our boss, and so my [school board] president was aware of the work that I was doing, and it was done during my own time off. So, I think that’s not something that was problematic, it was legitimate, and it was done and the board was aware of it.”

Either way, the judge approved the motion and this charge was dropped.

Prosecutor Shares Evidence, including Witness List

The bigger news this week is a 51-page Santiago proffer prosecutors filed laying out their evidence against Horton and his co-defendants, plus a preview of who they plan to call to the stand.

The document breaks down the alleged kickback scheme by vendor. You can find some of the original contracts in my story from March 2023, District 65 Superintendent Steering Contracts to Business Partners. This is the first evidence I’ve seen presented showing the actual kickbacks.

• Connecting the Dots (Antonio Ross's company): $139,500 in District 65 contracts, with Ross kicking back roughly $41,900 to Horton in cash and Zelle payments, some routed through Horton's sibling, identified in the filing only as "Individual A."

• Asset Protection Specialist (Samuel Ross's company): $119,500 in contracts, with roughly $30,800 kicked back to Horton in cash.

• New Flight 35 (Alfonzo Lewis's company): $24,500 in contracts, with roughly $9,000 kicked back in cash and Zelle payments.

Prosecutors say bank records show at least $81,700 in kickbacks total, with cash withdrawals by the vendors and deposits into Horton's accounts landing within days of each other. For instance, here’s the governments timeline for one of the contractors:

The filing also includes text messages between Horton and Samuel Ross in May 2022 that prosecutors claim show Horton dictated contract and invoice details directly. At this time, state law required Board approval for contracts over $25,000. A state law passed in July 2023 increased this number from $25,000 → $35,000, but it wasn’t effective until 2024 (this contract would end up in front of the Board in January 2023).

Horton: Got your email. I do[n’]t see the scope of work. Should include the actual work, timeline, cost.

Samuel Ross: Gotcha

Horton: Make the cost for 35k [$35,000]

Samuel Ross: Thank you

Samuel Ross: I’m unhappy with some of my verbiage. I will change a few things.

Horton: Ok I’ll check it out.

Horton: What’s up kid the SOW is cool just change the dates to month of June 2022 and make the cost [$]34,500.00

We will do another in the new school year for the work. Our fiscal year starts July 1st to July 1st

A month later in June 2022, Horton texted Ross again;

Horton: Hey kid let’s get the invoice in pronto. They are pushing them in and out fast!

Samuel Ross: Ok. Submit another Invoice for half ? Or submit the partial assessment

Horton: Half

See look at this invoice [laughing with tears emoji]

Samuel Ross: Jesus. Gotcha

Just landed in Austin. I’ll knock out the invoice once I get to the store

Horton: Bet!

And in August 2022;

Horton: It’s funny sitting here in my daily debrief with my team and they are referencing the work that you are doing [fist bump emoji]

Samuel Ross: Lol

It’s mind blowing how perfect this is

Horton: I’m telling you it’s a much needed service. [glasses clinking emoji]

Samuel Ross: Cheers [glasses clinking emoji]

The document also lists upcoming witnesses to testify including a District 65 Board member, District 65's former CFO, a purchasing agent, Horton's executive assistant, D65's Director of Culture and Climate, a CPS assistant principal, a D65 middle school athletic director, a D65 warehouse manager, and “Individual A” — Dr. Horton’s sibling. The government expects individual A to testify regarding the specific details of how the kickback scheme worked:

Individual A is expected to testify that since at least 2020, Individual A has maintained a Zelle account. In approximately early 2023, Horton called Individual A and stated that one of the “guys” would be sending Individual A a “package.” Individual A understood “guys” to be a reference to someone in Horton’s close group of friends, including Samuel Ross, Antonio Ross, and Lewis. By “package” Individual A understood Horton to be referencing money. After Individual A received the first payment, Individual A called Horton and asked him what to do with the money. Horton told Individual A to send the money to him. Individual A is expected to testify that in early 2023, Individual A received several Zelle money transfers from Antonio Ross and Alfonzo Lewis. Individual A promptly transferred those amounts to Horton’s Zelle account. Individual A did not know what the money was for.

The Board member listed as a witness is described as:

D65 Board Member was a member of District 65’s school board during Horton’s tenure as superintendent and was president of the board for a portion of that period.

And is expected to testify they were unaware of Horton’s prior relationships;

D65 Board Member is expected to testify that during Horton’s tenure, D65 Board Member was not aware that District 65 had entered into any contracts, contract amendments, or contract extensions with Connecting the Dots or New Flight. Nor was D65 Board Member aware that Connecting the Dots’ owner Antonio Ross and New Flight’s owner Alfonzo Lewis were longtime friends of Horton’s. D65 Board Member is further expected to testify that while District 65’s board approved the award of a contract to Asset Protection in the amount of $34,500, Horton never informed the board that Asset Protection was owned by Horton’s longtime friend Samuel Ross.

There were two board presidents during the Horton years: Anya Tanyavutti from 2020 until April 2022 and Sergio Hernandez, elected Board President in April 2022. Mr. Hernandez was Board president in January 2023, when the Board approved the $34,500 contract with Asset Protection (note: there’s a typo in the document that says 2022, but it was January 2023).

The trial is still scheduled to begin October 21st.