Miranda Brothers (Portage County Sheriff’s Office).
Police Officer Miranda L. Brothers, 29, from Mantua, expressed tearfully to Portage County deputies that she had “nothing to hide” as they removed her child and took her in for questioning related to a past criminal case. She adamantly claimed her innocence, stating that she was not involved in any wrongdoing.
On January 2, 2024, authorities in Ohio filed charges of child endangerment against Brothers. Allegations were made that she had left her child unsupervised with a sex offender. The case was ultimately dismissed on July 11, only five days before the scheduled trial, citing the unavailability of a crucial witness due to medical reasons. Despite this, Brothers took further action by suing the sheriff’s office, denouncing the baseless nature of the endangerment accusations.
In her legal complaint, Brothers accused the sheriff’s office of unjustly arresting her without sufficient proof. Furthermore, she claimed that a detective referred to as John Doe in the lawsuit had accessed explicit photos from her phone and shared them, despite them being unrelated to the child endangerment case.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Brothers told investigators on the side of the road after they pulled her over with the child and a dog in her vehicle on Jan. 1, 2024.
That day, investigators asked her to come over to headquarters for questioning and said that they would have to take her child to foster care.
“They’re going to take custody of my kid?” she asked, incredulous. “For what?”
Records show that the date of the alleged criminal offense was Dec. 7, 2023, but according to Brothers’ lawsuit, that was absolutely baseless. At least two detectives on Dec. 7, 2023, were assigned to observe her and her child in connection with the investigation into her parenting. The detectives were positioned outside a restaurant in Mantua, about 30 miles southeast of Cleveland. Both detectives later testified that the child never had “any unsupervised contact with a registered sex offender,” according to the complaint.
Before the Dec. 7 operation, a third detective allegedly “investigated” the allegations against Brother and testified under oath that they were “unfounded” and “not accurate.”
