The Portage County Sheriff’s Office has filed charges against a Village of Mantua police officer, alleging she endangered her 5-year-old son by leaving him alone with a man previously convicted of sexual battery.
Officer Miranda Brothers pleaded not guilty Jan. 4 to the charge and is scheduled to appear Jan. 24 in Portage County Municipal Court for pretrial proceedings.
Brothers remains free on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond granted by Portage County Municipal Court Judge Kevin Poland. Her case has been assigned to Municipal Court Judge Mark Fankhauser.
Child endangering is a first-degree misdemeanor under Ohio law. Newly seated village Mayor Tammy Meyer said she placed Brothers on paid administrative leave Jan. 3, as soon as the charges came to light.
The complaint, filed Jan. 2, alleges 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. “It is believed that Brothers allows Paratore to spend extended periods of time alone” with the child, alleges the complaint, which is signed by Ken Romo, a detective with the Portage County Sheriff’s Office.
The complaint alleges that Brothers knew Paratore was convicted of a sexual offense against a juvenile.
Paratore has previously stated that his conviction of sexual battery involved a teen girl he believed to be of legal age. He has not been charged with anything in relation to the current matter, but the county’s adult probation department is investigating, said chief probation officer Hank T. Gibson.
PCSO Detective Bureau Captain Lew Finsen said the complaint started off as multiple tips from concerned citizens and grew into an investigation involving the sheriff’s office, the county prosecutor’s office and Job & Family Services of Portage County.
“Something’s not right. An officer being charged with child endangerment. That’s a huge red flag,” Finsen said. “These aren’t just accusations. There has to be proof when somebody’s charged. This is a serious accusation involving a police officer. We’re held to a higher standard.”
Portage County Job & Family Services Director Kellijo Jeffries declined to comment, citing department policy regarding neglect and abuse cases.
Declining to directly comment on the allegations against her, Brothers said, “I love my son. I would never hurt him and anyone who knows me knows that.”
Brothers is being represented by attorney Eric Fink, who is also assistant law director for the City of Kent. He did not return requests for comment by press time.
Paratore denied the substance of the complaint, saying that his girlfriend, Wendy Davis, was the child’s designated babysitter.
“Per my probation paperwork and rules, I am allowed to be around children as long as I am supervised,” Paratore said. “To my knowledge, Miranda Brothers has never left her child unsupervised, and he has never, ever, ever been under my care. He has always been with a babysitter.”
Davis said she has cared for the child for short periods of time at the sub shop for two and a half years, sometimes with Paratore present and sometimes not.
In April 2017, Paratore pleaded guilty to sexual battery (a third-degree felony) and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in March 2020, ordered to serve five years of probation, to have no contact with the victim, to seek and maintain employment, not to consume alcohol, to undergo alcohol and sex offender counseling, not to leave Ohio, and to abide by sexual offender registration requirements. He is not permitted to own a firearm.
Paratore remains active in the community, and his conviction is well-known. Last year, while attending a village council meeting, former Council Member Scott Weaver loudly threatened Paratore across the room for chatting during the meeting, calling him a “pedophile.” Weaver pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for the outburst.
Paratore petitioned the court to be released from probation last summer, but his request was denied.
Unless specifically approved by the court, anyone who is on probation is prohibited from associating with juveniles, Gibson said, adding that sex offenders are prohibited from babysitting, going to parks, playgrounds, movies or other places that may attract children.
Since Paratore owns a sub shop, the court approved his contact with children “in the course of his business,” Gibson added. The court will also determine if Paratore’s presence while Davis was watching Brothers’ child constituted a probation violation.
If Brothers is ultimately convicted of child endangerment, the prosecutor’s office (representing the state) could file a motion to revoke Paratore’s probation.
If Paratore still disputes the charge, a hearing could follow. Should authorities determine that Paratore had violated the terms of his probation, Gibson said he could be sent back to prison or jail, or the terms of his probation could be altered, subject to closer supervision.
The current charge against Brothers follows a long period of controversy and flaring tempers in Mantua, at times focused on the police department.
Amid rumors that Brothers was having an improper relationship with Mantua Police Chief Joseph Urso, village council in 2022 hired Aurora Law Director Dean DePiero to investigate the matter.
Meyer, then village council president, was a leading proponent of that investigation.
DePiero concluded in March 2023 that while nothing in state law or Village of Mantua employee policies prohibits personal relationships among staff, the village’s police department policy manual forbids employees from directly supervising a person they are dating.
Urso and Brothers both contested a key element of DePiero’s report, saying their relationship was not that of boyfriend and girlfriend.
In April 2023, then-mayor Linda Clark modified the police department’s policy, stipulating that Urso would no longer directly manage Brothers in any way.
The PCSO considers the investigation into the alleged child endangerment “ongoing,” Finsen stated, denying that anyone is out to “get” Brothers or Paratore.
“When you have a known sexual offender in your area, and people aren’t blind, especially in a small community like that, and they see young children being dropped off with him and being around him, that’s going to raise some red flags. It’s just common sense,” Finsen said.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.