A Mantua police officer plans to file a lawsuit against the Portage Co Sheriff’s Office after a child endangerment case was dismissed

PORTAGE COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO) – Mantua Police Officer Miranda Brothers plans to file a lawsuit against the Portage County Sheriff’s Office after the child endangerment case against her was dismissed.

“We’re trying to figure out what it is or what caused them to launch this operation against her in the first place and why they treated her so differently than any other parent in a similar situation,” said the brothers’ attorney, Eric Fink.

Fink said there was no evidence to support the allegations.

“Although she was accused of leaving the child alone with a registered sex offender, each of the officers who testified stated that they never saw any contact with the registered sex offender,” Fink said.

Fink explained what led to the arrest.

“She took her child to her babysitter who was in a restaurant in Mantua, she was supposed to work in Mantua. Her babysitter is an off-duty police dispatcher whose background has been checked,” Fink said. “While she was there, the sheriff’s department sent out a couple of detectives to take photographs and apparently wanted to find out if she had left her child with a registered sex offender instead of with the babysitter police dispatcher.”

According to her attorney, Brothers was caught off guard when she was arrested in January.

“Several officers are involved in this sting operation, they take her to the side of the road, tell her she has to hand over her cell phone first, they tell her they are taking her child away and she does. “There were very few Explanations about what’s going on,” Fink said.

Fink said the brothers’ phone and their child’s tablet were also searched by investigators.

“Law enforcement went through the matter and found no evidence of wrongdoing on her cell phone or her child’s tablet,” Fink said. “However, they found several images that they then shared themselves and that had nothing to do with the case.”

According to their lawyer, the brothers returned to work with the Mantua Police Department after their case was dismissed in July.

19 News has reached out to the Portage County Sheriff’s Office for comment.

“Given that our office is not aware of any alleged lawsuit, there is nothing to comment,” the sheriff’s office said.

Copyright 2024 WOIO. All rights reserved.