Former Northridge School District treasurer Britt Lewis, indicted last month on two counts related to Lewis having hired his wife into a school district position under his control, showed up in Licking County Common Pleas Court for his initial hearing in a coat and tie.
During the Aug. 17 hearing, which lasted only a few minutes, Lewis smiled at Magistrate Mallory N. Land-Libby, and said nothing. His attorney, Joseph C. Patituce, did the talking.
Lewis, who retired as treasurer in December 2025 and was rehired by the Northridge Board of Education on a one-year contract as a consultant to the new treasurer, is charged with “having an unlawful interest in a public contract,” a fourth-degree felony, and “representation by public official or employee,” a first-degree misdemeanor.
Patituce, who would not comment on Monday’s hearing, said in a statement in July that, “Mr. Lewis acknowledges the seriousness of the charges, will enter a plea of not guilty, and intends to push forward with defending himself in this matter.”
Patituce, of Strongsville, waived Lewis’ right to have the charges read aloud in court, and when asked how Lewis pleads to the charges, Patituce said, “not guilty.”
Lewis was indicted on July 8 and originally was scheduled for an initial appearance on July 28, but Land-Libby granted a continuance because Lewis was out of the state at the time and his attorneys had another case that day.
Land-Libby on Monday asked an attorney representing Licking County Prosecutor Jenny Wells’ office for input on setting bond for Lewis and was told that Lewis has no history of criminal convictions, so the office would support releasing Lewis on his own recognizance.
That means he didn’t have to post a bond and instead would promise with his signature that he will show up for future court proceedings in the case.
With that, Land-Libby ordered Lewis to check in at the Adult Court Services office, which provides pre-trial supervision of people charged with crimes. She also ordered Lewis, who lives in the Northridge school district in northern Licking County, not to consume drugs or alcohol and to stop at the Licking County Jail to be fingerprinted before leaving Newark.
| Read more: Former Northridge treasurer indicted on two charges related to hiring his wife for a district job
A key element of the felony charge against Lewis is that the law says “no public official shall knowingly … authorize, or employ the authority or influence of the public official’s office to secure authorization of any public contract in which the public official, a member of the public official’s family, or any of the public official’s business associates has an interest.”
And the law behind the misdemeanor charge says, in part, that “no present or former public official or employee shall, during public employment or service or for 12 months thereafter, represent a client or act in a representative capacity for any person on any matter in which the public official or employee personally participated as a public official or employee through decision, approval, disapproval, recommendation, the rendering of advice, investigation, or other substantial exercise of administrative discretion.”
Not only was Mr. Lewis involved in hiring his wife, but Mr. Lewis also recommended a raise of about 27% for her, according to a former superintendent.
The maximum penalty for someone found guilty of a fourth degree felony is 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. The maximum for a first-degree misdemeanor is 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
The charges filed in Licking County Common Pleas Court on July 9 stem from circumstances shared with the Ohio Ethics Commission in complaints by Ohio Auditor Keith Faber and others.
Wrapping up an annual financial review of the 1,200-student Northridge district, between Johnstown and Utica, Faber sent a letter dated March 5, 2025, to district officials saying that his office would refer to the Ohio Ethics Commission a “noncompliance finding” involving district Mr. Lewis.
The auditor’s office raised concerns about Mr. Lewis being involved in the hiring of his wife, Carley Lewis, as the food service director for the rural Licking County district – and that Mrs. Lewis “reports to the assistant treasurer and to the superintendent to remain independent of the treasurer.”
But because human resources – and food-service employees – were under the treasurer’s office at the time, former Superintendent Kristine Michael, who retired in June 2025, said in an interview last year that Mrs. Lewis did not report to her and never did.
The auditor’s letter to the district noted that Mr. Lewis was among those who, in 2019, signed a five-year employment contract for Mrs. Lewis, who had been a custodian in the district before being hired for the food-service job.
Mrs. Lewis accompanied her husband to the courthouse on Monday but did not attend the hearing.
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.