March 8, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.
Family sues district, janitor over 2018 elementary school assault
A local family has filed a civil lawsuit against the School District of Rhinelander and Victory Janitorial Service, Inc. alleging they were negligent in allowing Stavros Iliopoulos to continue to work as a janitor at Northwoods Community Elementary School (NCES) despite knowledge of “other incidents of sexual harassment” attributed to him. The school district and the janitorial company were also negligent in “hiring, training, instructing, monitoring and supervising” Iliopoulos, the complaint alleges.
Iliopoulos, 71, is also a defendant in the suit filed in Oneida County Circuit Court March 4.
According to the complaint, he is accused of intentionally inflicting “offensive bodily contact” upon the child plaintiff while she was a student at NCES back in 2018.
The other plaintiffs in the case are the child’s parents.
Over the last several years, two separate local juries heard evidence related to the child’s claim that Iliopoulos intercepted her as she was leaving a school restroom, forced her into a janitor’s closet and kissed her upper chest and stomach area. Both juries ultimately convicted Iliopoulos of child enticement, false imprisonment and first-degree sexual assault, all felonies.
A second trial was held after Oneida County circuit judge Mike Bloom found Iliopoulos had not received effective assistance of counsel during the first proceeding. The initial guilty verdicts, handed down in September of 2019, were overturned after appellate counsel successfully argued Iliopoulos’s trial attorney was deficient in failing to properly challenge key DNA evidence, among other errors.
“The simplest way to summarize why the defendant was granted a new trial was because the court believed that if all of the information made clear during the postconviction proceedings was presented to the jury that the result could have been different,” Bloom explained.
The second trial, held in December 2022, featured a more focused discussion regarding the type, quality, quantity and location of the DNA evidence collected from the child’s body, however the verdict was the same.
The sentence was the same as well.
Last February, Bloom ordered Iliopoulos to serve a total of 14 years in prison to be followed by 16 years extended supervision.
“The court’s role, at this point, is not to reassess the evidence in light of what was presented at the new trial,” Bloom said prior to pronouncing sentence. “That was the province of the jury and I cannot say at this point, as a matter of law, in my judgment, that the defendant is either more or less guilty than he was.”
As he has from the outset, Iliopoulos continued to maintain his innocence.
“I don’t want mercy, I want the truth,” he told the court at sentencing. “I am innocent and I hope before I die I’m going to prove (it).”
According to court records, Iliopoulos has new appellate counsel. The third district court of appeals in Wausau has set a deadline of April 1 for the filing of a new appeal or motion for post-conviction relief. Meanwhile, the case has moved to the civil arena.
In a 10-page complaint, the plaintiffs allege that negligence on the part of the school district and Victory Janitorial “was a substantial factor and proximate cause” of the injuries and damages they suffered due to the assault.
The child has suffered “severe and permanent injury” that interferes with normal activities and the ability to enjoy life while the parents allege they incurred medical expenses and lost wages as well as “a loss of society and companionship” of their child.
The complaint alleges that both the school district and the janitorial company had “knowledge” of other incidents of sexual harassment committed by Iliopoulos, but does not elaborate as to when, where or against whom the alleged incidents of sexual harassment took place.
In late 2018, the River News reported that Iliopoulos had been “counseled” by the district after an adult staff member expressed concern about his behavior.
According to a record provided to the newspaper in response to an open records request made after the criminal charges were filed, the district received a report in late September 2018 from a staff member who reported that Iliopoulos had made her uncomfortable by calling her to the workroom and commenting on her looks.
“We met with Steve to discuss the harassment claim made by a female employee,” the record, a memo produced by the district’s former director of business services, states. “(The employee) claimed that Steve made her uncomfortable by calling her to the workroom or storage and commenting on her looks. He denied calling her to the workroom, but admitted that he comments on people’s looks and that he likes to joke around. I asked him to stop, be polite but not to comment on appearance. I told him that he can talk about weather and other things, but comments on appearance are not appropriate. I told him not to get too close to people; we all need our personal space. Also, I told him not to have any physical contact with staff members and/or students.”
That complaint, which did not involve physical touching, was the only one the district reported when the newspaper made a formal request for any and all records of any previous complaints regarding the custodians contracted to clean local public schools.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs served the school district with a claim for damages, a common precursor to a civil lawsuit, in January 2021. The district did not respond to the claim and thus it was disallowed.
The complaint ends with a request for “fair and reasonable compensation for the injuries and damages suffered by the plaintiffs.”
Reached for comment, district superintendent Eric Burke said he had not yet seen the lawsuit. He stated that he would refer the matter to the district’s insurance company, which is also a defendant in the suit. Victory Janitorial’s insurance company is the fifth defendant in the case.
Representatives for Victory did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the litigation.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Theresa Laughlin, of the personal injury firm Habush Habush & Rottier, declined to comment.
The case has been assigned to Bloom, though he is set to leave the bench at the end of July.
Heather Schaefer may be reached at heather@rivernewsonline.com.
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