A police officer from a small Ohio village has filed a lawsuit against the Portage County Sheriff’s Office, alleging serious misconduct, including the wrongful removal of her child and the unauthorized distribution of private images from her phone.
Allegations of overreach and abuse
Miranda Brothers, a Mantua village police officer and single mother, claims in her lawsuit filed last Tuesday that sheriff’s deputies unjustly took her five-year-old child away during a traffic stop on January 1, 2024. The stop led to child endangerment charges that were later dismissed.
The trouble for Brothers started on January 1, 2024, when sheriff investigators stopped her car and took her five-year-old child, alleging she had left the child alone with a registered sex offender, according to the lawsuit.
“You’re gonna take custody of my kid. For what?” Brothers can be heard asking in bodycam footage obtained by WOIO.
Questions of evidence and procedure
According to Eric Fink, Brothers’ attorney, the case against his client lacked substantiation from the start. “Although she was charged with leaving the child alone with a registered sex offender, each of the officers that testified stated that they never saw any contact with the registered sex offender,” Fink told WOIO.
Additional allegations of misconduct
The lawsuit reveals a disturbing secondary allegation: during the investigation, an unnamed detective allegedly discovered and shared private images from Brothers’ confiscated phone within the department and possibly beyond.
“Law enforcement went through it, and they could not find any evidence of any wrongdoing on her cell phone or her child’s tablet,” Fink explained. “They did however find several pictures which they then passed around themselves that had nothing to do with the case.”
Professional impact and aftermath
The charges, which were dismissed over the summer, initially resulted in Brothers’ suspension from her duties with the Mantua Police Department, which serves a village of approximately 1,000 residents. She has since returned to active duty.
Legal claims and damages
The lawsuit characterizes the alleged conduct as “so extreme and outrageous that it went beyond all possible bounds of decency and is intolerable in a civilized society.” Brothers is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for:
- Malicious prosecution
- Intentional infliction of emotional distress
“We are trying to find out what it is or what caused them to initiate this operation against her in the first place, and why they treated her so differently from any other parent in a similar situation,” Fink stated.
The Portage County Sheriff’s Office has not yet responded to requests for comment on the pending litigation.
