A police officer from Mantua, Ohio, is suing the Portage County Sheriff’s Office, claiming she was unfairly arrested and her child taken into foster care based on false accusations. The officer, Miranda L. Brothers, says she was accused of leaving her then-5-year-old child alone with a registered sex offender, even though there was no evidence to support the allegations. She also alleges that sheriff’s investigators accessed private, explicit photos on her phone and shared them within the office and possibly beyond.
Miranda Brothers, who is 29 years old, filed her lawsuit last week in the Portage County Court of Common Pleas. She is seeking over $150,000 in damages and accuses the sheriff’s office of malicious prosecution, violating her constitutional rights, causing emotional distress, and interfering with her personal life.
The ordeal began in January 2024 when Brothers was arrested and charged with child endangerment. However, the charges were dropped in July due to lack of evidence.
According to the lawsuit, the trouble started earlier in December 2023. Two detectives were assigned to observe Brothers and her child as part of an investigation into her parenting. They watched her outside a restaurant in Mantua, about 30 miles southeast of Cleveland. These detectives later testified that her child never had any unsupervised contact with a registered sex offender. Another detective also testified under oath that the allegations against Brothers were false and unfounded.
Despite this, deputies pulled her over on January 1, 2024, during a traffic stop. They took her child into foster care, seized her phone and her child’s tablet, and accused her of allowing a sex offender to spend long periods alone with her child. This led to criminal charges the next day and her immediate suspension from the police department.
The lawsuit claims the sheriff’s office acted without any evidence of wrongdoing or danger to the child. To make matters worse, Brothers says the investigators went through her phone and found personal, intimate photos, which they then shared among themselves at work.
This case has raised serious questions about how the sheriff’s office handled the investigation and the impact it had on Brothers and her child. Now, she’s fighting back in court, hoping for justice and accountability.