This story was edited in December 2018 to remove identifying information in accordance with cleveland.com's right-to-be-forgotten policy.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A former Laurel School teacher and middle school softball coach is suing a former student who accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was in the eighth grade.

The former teacher was charged with child rape and kidnapping earlier last year in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, but a judge dismissed the charges mid-trial when she learned a Shaker Heights detective withheld evidence in the case. The Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals has yet to decide whether to reinstate the charges.

The coach and his wife filed a lawsuit last week that claims the former student and her parents defamed his character and levied false accusations as part of a conspiracy to extract a payout from Laurel School.

The lawsuit also accuses Shaker Heights detective Jessica Page of violating the coach's constitutional rights by withholding a drawing the former student made during an interrogation.

Page's supervisors and the city of Shaker Heights are also named as defendants.

The lawsuit, filed by attorney Larry Zukerman, accuses the defendants of civil conspiracy, defamation, libel, slander, malicious prosecution, failure to properly investigate and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

It seeks at least $25,000 in damages.

Shaker Heights Police Department Commander John Cole, who is named as a defendant in the suit, declined to comment. Page is on administrative leave from the department and could not be reached.

The former student, who cleveland.com is not naming because she has said she is a victim of sexual assault, also could not be reached.

It's unclear how the lawsuit could affect the criminal case, should the appellate court reinstate the charges.

The girl reported in 2015, when she was a sophomore in high school, that the coach sexually assaulted her during two indoor softball practices in spring of 2013, according to court records.

The girl told Page in two separate interviews that the coach sexually assaulted her in a room in the school that doubled as a storage room for softball equipment and "art stuff," records show.

She drew two diagrams -- one to show Page the layouts of the gym and the equipment room, and the other to show where in the equipment room the assaults took place and the softball equipment was stored.

Page never put the second diagram into the investigative file that was given to prosecutors before the coach was indicted Sept. 12, 2016. The diagram was also never given to the coach's defense lawyers before his trial began May 8.

The omission was revealed in the middle of the trial. The coach's lawyers asked Judge Nancy Margaret Russo to dismiss the case, arguing that Page denied the coach his right to exculpatory evidence.

Russo excoriated Page in an 11-page opinion that dismissed the case.

Prosecutors appealed the decision to the Eighth District Court of Appeals. It's not clear when that court may render a decision.

The coach's lawsuit says Page intentionally withheld the second diagram because she knew it could hurt her case. The lawsuit says Page had become recklessly determined to convict the coach.

The lawsuit says Page told the former student that she was her "advocate," and that she wanted to act in her best interest. Page also told the girl that the coach's reputation would be ruined by her accusations, even if he was not convicted at trial, according to a transcript of the interrogation contained in court records.

The lawsuit also mentions a letter that a personal injury lawyer, who was representing the former student's family, sent to the Laurel School after the coach was indicted. The lawyer claimed the Laurel School was responsible for the coach's actions, and requested the school pay $2 million to the former student's family "to settle this matter pre-suit only," the lawsuit says.

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