An Ohio police officer has filed a bombshell lawsuit against the Portage County Sheriff’s Office, alleging a chilling abuse of power.
Officer Miranda L. Brothers, 29, with the Mantua Police Department claims she was wrongfully arrested, and her five-year-old son was placed in foster care, while private, explicit photos from her phone were taken and passed around sheriff’s staff.
Brothers, a single mother, is now suing the sheriff’s office for over $150,000 in punitive damages.
Her lawsuit accuses the department of malicious prosecution, constitutional violations, intentional emotional distress, and grave misconduct.
Brothers claims there is a complete lack of evidence to support the allegations against her.
According to the suit, the nightmare began in late 2023 when detectives launched a covert investigation into Brothers’ parenting.
The probe focused on unsubstantiated claims that she had left her son alone with a registered sex offender.
Surveillance by two detectives on December 7, 2023, reportedly revealed no such contact, and a third detective’s earlier findings corroborated that the allegations were ‘unfounded’ and ‘inaccurate.’
Officer Miranda L. Brothers, 29, with the Mantua Police Department has filed a bombshell lawsuit against the Portage County Sheriff’s Office, alleging a chilling abuse of power
Brothers claims she was wrongfully arrested with private, explicit photos from her phone were taken and passed around sheriff’s staff
Brothers also claims her five-year-old son was placed in foster care and charged with child endangerment
But less than a month later, on January 1, 2024, sheriff’s deputies conducted a traffic stop, seizing Brothers’ phone, her child’s tablet, and removed her son from her custody.
Brothers was charged with child endangerment the following day, with authorities alleging she allowed a sex offender to spend ‘extended periods of time alone’ with her child.
Brothers’ lawsuit paints a damning picture of what happened next.
A forensic search of her devices yielded no evidence of criminal conduct – a fact detectives testified to in an April 2024 hearing.
‘The testimony at the April 15, 2024 Motion Hearing verified that no detective had witnessed Juvenile A engage in unsupervised contact with a registered sex offender,’ the complaint states.
Despite this, prosecutors pressed forward, leaving Brothers suspended from her job and her son in foster care for months.
The most incendiary claims in Brothers’ suit, however, involve the sheriff’s office’s alleged mishandling of her seized cellphone.
fcThe officer accuses a detective, identified as ‘John Doe,’ of sharing explicit private photos of her with colleagues and potentially others outside the department.
Brothers, a single mom, is now suing the sheriff’s office for over $150,000 in punitive damages
Brothers’ lawsuit accuses the department of malicious prosecution, constitutional violations, intentional emotional distress, and grave misconduct. Brothers is seen at this year’s toy drive
The lawsuit against the Portage County Sheriff’s Office alleged a chilling abuse of power (file)
‘Despite knowing that the digital images were not relevant to any criminal charge, Detective John Doe shared and/or disseminated these digital images within the Portage County [Sheriff’s] Office and potentially further,’ the lawsuit states.
Brothers’ legal team described the conduct as ‘so extreme and outrageous’ that it ‘went beyond all possible bounds of decency.’
Her attorney, Eric Fink, did not hold back in his condemnation.
Speaking to WOIO, he described the allegations as an unprecedented abuse of trust.
‘They went through [the phone], found no evidence of wrongdoing, and then shared private, explicit photos entirely unrelated to the investigation,’ he said.
When asked if the photos were explicit, Fink confirmed they were.
Brothers claims there is a complete lack of evidence to support the allegations against her
Brothers’ complaint goes into some detail as it describes the emotional toll of her experience together with the humiliation and devastation at losing custody of her son
According to the suit, the nightmare began in late 2023 when detectives launched a covert investigation into Brothers’ parenting. The charges were finally dropped in July 2024
The Portage County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pictured, Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski
The charges against Brothers were finally dropped in July 2024, and she has since returned to duty but her attorney says the ordeal has left lasting scars.
‘We are still trying to understand why this investigation was even opened,’ Fink said, adding that Brothers had left her son with a babysitter – a trusted off-duty police dispatcher – on the day in question.
Brothers’ complaint goes into some detail as it describes the emotional toll of her experience together with the humiliation and devastation at losing custody of her son and having her personal images shared by those sworn to uphold the law.
The case is heading to court with the Portage County Sheriff’s Office yet to comment on the allegations.
