Ohio Cop Alleges Sheriff’s Office Shared Explicit Images After Arrest

An Ohio police officer, Miranda Brothers, has recently made headlines by filing a lawsuit against the Portage County Sheriff’s Office. Brothers, a single mother and a cop in Mantua village, alleges that the sheriff’s office wrongfully took her young child from her and then proceeded to share "private" explicit images from her cellphone. This incident unfolded after she was hit with criminal charges, which were eventually dropped, marking what she describes as a harrowing abuse of power.

The ordeal for Brothers commenced on January 1, 2024, when investigators from the sheriff’s office pulled her over and removed her then 5-year-old child from her vehicle. They accused Brothers of leaving her child alone with a registered sex offender, as detailed in the lawsuit.

Bodycam footage obtained by WOIO captured Brothers questioning the officers that day, “You’re gonna take custody of my kid. For what?” Subsequently, the child was placed in foster care, and Brothers was charged with child endangerment. The complaint alleged that Brothers allowed the sex offender to spend extended periods alone with her son.

However, the lawsuit contends that these accusations were baseless, asserting that the sheriff’s office lacked evidence to support the charges. Eric Fink, Brothers’ lawyer, highlighted that despite the charge of leaving her child with a sex offender, none of the testifying officers witnessed any contact between Brothers and the registered sex offender.

Following the dismissal of the charge during the summer, Brothers, who had been initially suspended from work amidst the legal turmoil, resumed her duties after the case was resolved.

Eric Fink expressed, “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.”

Mantua, a village in Portage County with a population of approximately 1,000 residents, became the backdrop for this distressing series of events.

During the investigation, the sheriff’s office seized Brothers’ phone. An unnamed detective scrutinized its contents and stumbled upon "private digital images" that were subsequently circulated within the department and potentially beyond, according to the legal proceedings.

The lawsuit characterizes this alleged behavior as “so extreme and outrageous that it went beyond all possible bounds of decency and is intolerable in a civilized society.” Fink, responding to inquiries from the station, confirmed that the photos were explicit.

“Law enforcement went through it, and they could not find any evidence of any wrongdoing on her cellphone or her child’s tablet,” Fink disclosed. “They did, however, find several pictures which they then passed around themselves that had nothing to do with the case.”

Brothers is now seeking substantial damages, including compensation for malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.