NEW BOSTON, MI- Law Enforcement Today recently reported on a Michigan teen who was falsely accused of making terroristic threats and was arrested. Law Enforcement Today reached out to his mother, Alison Reedy, to learn about the challenges her son, Dillon, faced.
Alison told us that her son was a student who experienced some academic “challenges,” and, as a freshman, was sitting in math class late in 2021. It was about a week or so after 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley opened fire at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, Michigan, killing four students and injuring seven others. Oxford Township is about an hour north of New Boston.
While sitting in class at Huron High School, Dillon became engaged in a conversation with another student, just having a little “back and forth.” At some point, Dillon didn’t get the answer correct, which somewhat frustrated Dillon.
Alison said he made a “grunting” noise, to which the other student said under his breath, “Don’t be like the Oxford school shooter.” At this, Dillon replied something to the effect of, ‘I’m not going to shoot the school up,’ or as Alison said, making “a hypothetical of like what he would never do.”
“So, he responded to what the other kid had said about ‘don’t be a school shooter’ or something like that,” Alison said.
Alison said the teacher was standing about 15 feet away from Dillon. At that time, students and staff were required to wear masks due to COVID-19 mandates in Michigan, which Alison said likely impeded the teacher’s ability to hear what was said accurately.
“So…you know, this was eight days after Oxford. So everybody was kind of on, you know, high alert, which…and I understand that. I never really faulted her until she lied in court.”
The teacher then took Dillon out into the hallway and asked him what he said. Dillon explained what he said to the teacher and the context in which it was said. She told him that “context didn’t matter,” and that she “was going to have to report this.”
“She never asked the kids at the table what happened,” Alison said.
The other student ended up being suspended for a week, however, after his father went to the school and said something about “free speech,” the suspension was reduced to a couple of days.
Alison believes one reason why the school targeted Dillon was because she had complained about assignments and “things of that nature.” Alison is also a devout Christian.
“So, they knew exactly who I was, and when they had my son in that situation, they just basically railroaded him,” Alison explained.
Alison said she received a call from the school secretary who told her, “You need to get your son; he’s in big trouble.”
“The whole time I’m driving to school, I’m like, now, they’ve got this wrong. This has to be my other kid. He always gets in trouble. So I’m like, they’ve got to have this mixed up.”
Alison said she got to the school and had to wait over an hour and a half. She said the principal came out a few times and told her they weren’t ready for her yet. She was finally brought into Principal Andrew Tomack’s office. Inside were Tomack, the vice principal, and the school resource officer, Keith Napo.
Tomack sat down and told Alison, “Your son just threatened to shoot up the school during a verbal altercation with another student.” Another man in the room (Alison didn’t recall who) said that Dillon showed no remorse.
“And I said, my son is a straight-A student. He’s never been in trouble in his life,” Alison said, to which Tomack said, “Ethan Crumbley was a straight-A student too.”
“She [the teacher] just compared my son to the Oxford school shooter,” Alison told us.
At that time, the SRO, Keith Napo, asked her to fill out a statement and stated that if she agreed to undergo a medical evaluation, she could take her son home.
“So, I’m writing my statement. And as I’m writing my statement, he’s [Napo] basically standing over me, coaching me, like what to write in this statement. He’s asking me if I had any guns at home. And I said, yeah, my husband has two,” Alison recalled. “And he’s like, ‘Where are they?’ I said, well, they’re locked up in a safe. And he says, ‘Well, where’s the key?’ And I said, ‘Well, there’s a magnetic key and it goes on the back of the safe. He says, ‘Well, that’s not good enough.’”
Alison said she told Napo that since she’s a real estate agent, she would agree to put a lockbox with a combination lock on it to keep the key in. Napo then asked her what type of guns they were, to which she said she “really doesn’t know guns.”
“So, I basically said, he’s got a shotgun from his dad and he has a big black gun,’ to which Napo said, ‘Oh, a big black gun? Well, that’s an AK-47.’ Yeah, I don’t know what an AK-47 is. I’m just trying to cooperate. He seemed like he knew what he was talking about, so you know?” Alison said.
In other words, based on the description Alison gave Napo, he assumed she was referring to an AK-47; however, it could have been any number of semi-automatic, black, scary-looking rifles.
Alison continued.
“So, I’m writing that in my statement because he pretty much just told me to. And I’m just basically writing these, you know, I’m going to take him, get him a medical evaluation,” Alison said. “My whole idea is that this statement is going to help me get my child to come home because that’s what he said.
When Dillon was finally brought into the room, Alison said she basically “tore into him,” asking him why he said what he did, especially in light of the shooting in Oxford. She said Dillon looked terrified when he came into the room. Napo asked Dillon to write another statement. After he was finished, Dillon and Alison were in the room for about five minutes when another officer, Leo Girard, came into the room and told Dillon he was going to jail. Alison said Dillon was never given his Miranda rights.
At some point in time, Girard asked Alison where she lived, and when she responded, he told her, “Oh, you live on [redacted] street? You should be able to afford a lawyer.”
As an aside, Alison told LET that when she was going through her backpack, she found some anti-Christian, pro-Muslim assignments in it. She said her son told her that in one assignment, the teacher played a song and they had to fill in the blanks.
“It’s basically making a mockery of the Ten Commandments, and then it says, ‘There’s no God but Allah.’ It also said that ‘Muhammad was Jesus’ prophet’.”
Alison noted that New Boston is near Dearborn, which has the largest Muslim population per capita in the United States.
In the ultimate act of humiliation for her son, Alison said the police department waited until school was letting out before parading Dillon outside in front of the other kids and to the police vehicle.
Further, Alison alleged that Dillon told the police officer the handcuffs were hurting him, at which point the officer (who was not identified) went in back and tightened them more.
When Dillon was taken to the Detroit Juvenile Facility, he was emotionally and mentally abused by other inmates, as well as being threatened with physical harm.
Alison made other allegations against Girard, noting that he is good friends with Scott Bolthouse, the corporate communications specialist at The Huron Hub. She said that before Dillon was even booked, the outlet put out an article that said a 14-year-old student threatened to shoot up the school during a verbal altercation with another student. Before he was booked.
Alison said Dillon was arrested and charged with domestic terrorism and was facing 15 years in a lockup. Alison said the charges were immediately reduced to a charge of intentional threat. She said they were offered a plea deal, which was refused. She noted that Dillon was asked to sign an apology letter, which Dillon said he didn’t want to do because he didn’t think he had done anything wrong. Long story short, when the case was brought to trial, “the judge was appalled,” Alison said, and the charges were dropped.
Alison Reedy has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (2:23-cv-10221) against the school district, superintendent, school officials, the Huron Township Police Department, the Chief of Police, Lt. Det. Leo Girard, and Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Kym Worthy, alleging violations of his First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The family has started a GiveSendGo fundraiser to help cover college expenses, which have been redirected to Dillon’s legal case.
