A criminal charge against a Mantua police officer has been dropped, with the prosecution saying one of its essential witnesses is unavailable due to medical reasons.
Mantua Police Officer Miranda Brothers was due to face trial by jury on July 16, but Portage County Assistant Prosecutor Eric Finnegan on July 11 requested the charges be dismissed “without prejudice.” Finnegan’s letter to Judge Mark Fankhauser stated that prosecution is uncertain as to when a key witness would be available for trial “in the immediate future.”
Fankhauser approved Finnegan’s request the same day. The legal term “without prejudice” means the state can refile the charges at any time.
Brothers had pleaded not guilty Jan. 4 to a charge of child endangerment stemming from allegations that she had left her 5-year-old son in the care of a man previously convicted of sexual battery.
The complaint, filed Jan. 2, alleged that Brothers “created a substantial risk to the health or safety” of her 5-year-old by leaving him in the sole care of Sebastian Paratore on Dec. 7, 2023, at the Mantua sub shop Paratore owns. The complaint alleged that Brothers knew Paratore was convicted of a sexual offense against a juvenile.
Paratore, who had served three years in prison before being released in March 2020, was then required to serve five years of probation ending on March 27, 2025. On May 26, 2023, he petitioned to be released from probation, but Judge Laurie Pittman denied his request on Aug. 8 of that year.
On Jan. 11, less than two weeks after the charge against Brothers was filed and months before it was dismissed, the county Adult Probation department stated that Paratore had failed to comply with the terms of his probation by having unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18. The agency also asserted that Paratore had accessed social media, specifically by having an active TikTok page.
On May 13, Pittman tightened the terms of Pataore’s probation, permitting him to use social media for business purposes only.
Although the charge of having unsupervised contact with a minor was subsequently dismissed, Portage County Chief Probation Officer Hank T. Gibson said Paratore’s probation will continue “as previously ordered.”
Probationers, he said, typically are expected to serve their full term, and Paratore is no exception.
Brothers said she is focused on moving past the events of the last six months and getting on with her life. Back on active duty after having been placed on administrative leave Jan. 3, she said she bears no ill will toward the Portage County Sheriff’s Office or the county prosecutor’s office, both of which she works with regularly on a professional basis.
Paratore declined comment, saying only that he wished to protect all parties. In a previous article, he said that his girlfriend was the child’s babysitter, and the child was never in his sole care.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.