Sheriff faced five federal lawsuits in 2025, most in recent history

The Portage County Sheriff’s Office was named as a defendant in five federal court cases in 2025, the highest number in a single year during Bruce Zuchowski’s tenure, according to a Portager examination of court records.

In Portage County Common Pleas Court, the sheriff’s office was named as a defendant once a year in 2021, 2022 and 2024, and twice in 2023 and 2025. 

When the sheriff’s office is named in a lawsuit, the Portage County Prosecutor’s Office provides legal representation at the expense of county taxpayers. With so many lawsuits working their way through the courts, The Portager has examined the status of several high profile cases to understand the county’s current legal liabilities. 

As of March 5, 2026, some of these cases are closed, having been dismissed or settled, while others are ongoing. Because of the nature of the job, it’s common for county sheriffs to face multiple lawsuits from former employees, residents or even other law enforcement agencies, as happened when Kent, Ravenna and Streetsboro sued the county.

One high-profile closed case pitted the sheriff’s office against two Portage County men who were initially accused of trafficking in cocaine and possession of cocaine, both first-degree felonies.

Deputies had stopped Zephaniah Robinson and his passenger, Jack Metcalf, on Aug. 29, 2023, and charged them with the crimes.

However, the Portage County Prosecutor’s Office abandoned the case when the alleged cocaine in the back of the 2018 Buick Encore turned out to be carpet cleaner that Robinson’s sister, who owned the car, had sprinkled in the back of the vehicle to combat a previous water problem, according to a filing in Portage County Common Pleas Court.

Robinson and Metcalf turned to federal court on Aug. 29, 2024, suing Zuchowski and the three deputies involved in the traffic stop for violation of their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable search and seizures by use of force, among other allegations.

The case was dismissed on March 28, 2025. Metcalf told The Portager they had to give up only because neither he nor Robinson had the money to pay their attorney to continue court proceedings.

The sheriff’s office did not respond to The Portager’s multiple requests for comment on any of the cases. Communicating via email, Administrative Specialist Susan Schlarb stated on Jan. 29 that The Portager’s request for comment had been distributed “to multiple individuals who are more versed in the matter of these referenced matters,” and she was awaiting responses as to whether a comment can or will be made.

Portage County Prosecutor Connie Lewandowski stated it would be inappropriate for her to comment because she represents all of the county’s elected officials.

The five federal complaints in 2025 is also a high mark when compared with any single year under the previous sheriff, David Doak, whose office was named as a defendant in three federal cases each in 2019 and 2020.

At the county level, Doak’s office saw itself named as defendant in Portage County Common Pleas Court once a year from 2010 through 2016, and three times in both 2018 and 2019.

Miranda Brothers v. sheriff’s deputies

The Portage County Sheriff’s Office made headlines across Northeast Ohio when deputies stopped a Mantua police officer and took her young son into foster care.

In that case, first filed Dec. 31, 2024, in Portage County Common Pleas Court, Miranda Brothers, a Village of Mantua resident and Mantua police officer, alleged that sheriff’s deputies stopped her car on Jan. 1, 2024, as she was exiting the Ohio Turnpike onto state Route 44.

The complaint states that the deputies removed her young son from her custody without probable cause, disseminated private digital images of her that they’d obtained from her cell phone, and interfered with and endangered her continued employment with the Mantua Police Department.

She alleged that the sheriff’s office, Zuchowski, then-Detective Kenneth Romo and another unidentified detective were guilty of malicious prosecution, violation of her constitutional right to parent her child, intentional infliction of emotional distress, prosecuting her without probable cause, and tortious interference with a business contract.

Brothers alleged that the traffic stop was rooted in the sheriff’s office’s Dec. 7, 2023, investigation of her for allegedly permitting her son to be in unsupervised care of a registered sex offender. The on-site investigators allegedly concluded the child was not in danger and did not take her son from her custody at that time.

The sheriff's attorneys had the case moved to federal court on Feb, 4, 2025. But the case was dismissed Aug. 27, 2025, after Brothers and her attorney, Eric Fink, who is also Kent's assistant law director, failed to make a court-ordered appearance to explain why they had missed an Aug. 18, 2025, filing deadline.

Brothers exchanged her full-time status with the police department for part-time employment on Nov. 30, 2025. She gained full-time employment with Akron Children’s Hospital police on Jan. 26, 2026.

In a second lawsuit, this one filed Jan. 2, 2025, in Portage County Common Pleas Court, Brothers sued the sheriff’s office over time sheets and payroll records she’d requested for four employees but had not received. Such documents are considered public record, and no reason must be given for requesting them.

The four employees were all involved in the Dec. 7, 2023, investigation of Brothers.

In its Jan. 14, 2025, response to Brothers’ second legal action, the sheriff’s office denied it was at fault. The case remains open in Portage County Common Pleas Court. A status hearing was set for Nov. 25, 2025, but no court records are available.

Deputies v. boss 

On Sept. 15, 2025, Portage County Deputy Eric Centa filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, alleging that the sheriff’s office “failed and refused to pay him a significant amount of overtime and continues to refuse to pay him earned overtime.”

Centa’s lawsuit alleges that Zuchowski, through his subordinates in his chain of command, retaliated against him. Centa alleges that he was:

• Removed from his assigned office

• Not provided with alternative office space

• Removed from work-related text and email chains

• Not notified when county radios were reprogrammed in 2024 

• Forced to return a weapon and a drone he needed to perform his duties 

• Denied a sheriff’s office-issued pistol 

• Excluded from firearms training and qualification even though he is a certified firearms trainer 

• Forbidden to attend outside training 

• Not informed of court dates he was required to attend

Also, “prior to being ordered to leave his assigned office, on two occasions someone left imitation pieces of excrement on [his] desk, and at the time he was ordered to remove his belongings from the office, someone erected a flag above his desk with the message ‘F**K AROUND AND FIND OUT’ emblazoned on the flag,” the lawsuit states.

An undisclosed settlement has been reached.

Another settled case between a deputy and the sheriff’s office was that of Dragan Poledica, who filed Oct. 23, 2023, to sue his former employer and the Portage County Board of Commissioners in Portage County Common Pleas Court.

Poledica was employed at the sheriff’s office from August 2021 to Aug. 4, 2023. Prior to that, he had worked for the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office for 24 years. According to his lawsuit, the Portage County Sheriff’s Office agreed to accept his accrued sick time from Trumbull County, but ended up not doing so.

The case was dismissed Dec. 1, 2025, after Poledica and the county commissioners reached an undisclosed agreement.

Also making its way through federal court is a case filed Oct. 10, 2025, by former Deputy Jasmine Villanueva. The lawsuit alleges that in 2023, when she was assigned to the county courthouse, she was denied requested accommodations for her pregnancy.

Those requested accommodations included breaks after three hours of work, being able to snack and hydrate as needed and that she not be required to lift more than 20 pounds.

Her request denied, the lawsuit states that Villanueva took family and medical leave in early August 2023. In late August, she allegedly presented the sheriff’s office with a revised list of proposed accommodations, but her complaint states that her employer refused to reinstate her.

Villanueva’s lawsuit cites discrimination against her on the basis of pregnancy and gender and that she suffered financial harm due to that discrimination.

The sheriff’s office denied culpability in its Dec. 22, 2025, answer to her complaint. The case remains open: U.S. District Judge John Adams on Feb. 19 set a March 11 deadline for either side to amend their pleadings or add parties, ordered all formal requests to resolve the lawsuit or any part of it to be filed by noon Sept. 16 and stipulated that case management conferences will be held every 45 days until the case is resolved.

Villanueva left her full-time position with the sheriff’s office on April 17, 2024. She accepted a full-time position with the Mantua Police Department on Nov. 11, 2025. 

Mantua Village Council authorized her to serve as a school resource officer on Dec. 16, 2025, but, citing concerns about her disciplinary record while at the sheriff’s office, Crestwood Local Schools have not accepted her as an SRO. The Portager was unable to determine Villanueva’s current assignment as Mantua officials did not respond to phone or email queries.

Residents v. the sheriff

The sheriff’s office also found itself named in multiple lawsuits filed by Portage County residents.

William Lane, a Palmyra Township resident who has been vocal about his opposition to Zuchowski, had two active cases involving the sheriff’s office in 2025.

On July 14, 2025, The Portager reported on Lane’s May 6, 2025, federal lawsuit pitting him against Zuchowski, Captain Robert James and then-Captain Michael Davis. Davis is now a major, second in command under Zuchowski.

Lane alleged that Zuchowski, James and Davis retaliated against him for creating “The Bad Bruce Exhibit,” a social media page critical of the sheriff’s office. Besides suing for violation of his First Amendment rights, Lane’s lawsuit alleges that the county created a culture of corruption in the sheriff’s office and permitted it to grow to the point that it became official policy.

On Aug. 6, 2025, Lane supplemented his complaint to include additional First Amendment violations, alleging that when he and Zuchowski chanced to meet on Aug. 1, 2025, in an area gas station convenience store, the sheriff stated that he would see Lane behind bars. Lane’s request to file the supplemental complaint states that “a threat of possible arrest and incarceration made by a senior law enforcement officer would chill the ardor of a reasonable person to exercise his or her First Amendment rights.” He is also suing for liability, slander and defamation.

The court has not addressed the request.

Depositions are ongoing. The court has granted the sheriff’s office’s request for more time to produce necessary documents, effectively pushing the case forward to October 2026. A mediation conference is set for March 30, 2026, before Magistrate Judge Jonathan D. Greenberg.

A second federal case Lane filed Oct 31, 2023, was dismissed April 3, 2025. In that case, Lane alleged that three deputies who stopped and searched his vehicle on April 24, 2023, violated his Fourth and 14th Amendment rights, causing him economic losses and physical and psychological pain and suffering.

His lawsuit also cited municipal liability, alleging that the county created a culture and custom in the sheriff’s office “of deliberate indifference toward rights of individuals … to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and deprivations of due process of law.”

The court ruled that the search was reasonable, so Lane’s constitutional rights were not violated. It also ruled that he failed to allege an underlying constitutional violation. The court also removed the county as a defendant because Lane could not identify a deliberate and ongoing failure to train sheriff’s office employees.

Another Portage County resident and his partner are acting as their own attorneys in separate filings in Portage County Common Pleas Court.

Windham resident Christopher Grace filed charges on Dec. 9, 2025, in Portage County Common Pleas Court against Shalersville resident John Helmling, Coventry resident Scott Woodall and four Portage County deputies (Simon Irwin, Robert Clouden, Michael Hawsman and Cody Wittensoldner) in connection with a July 13, 2025, incident on South Prospect Street in Ravenna.

In an Aug. 14, 2025, criminal affidavit Grace filed with the court, he stated that “we” had called 911 to report a break-in at the Prospect Street building he, as trustee, owns at 4283 Prospect St. in Ravenna. 

The “we” refers to Tara Colley, Grace’s long-time significant other. The two share an address in Windham, and Colley leases the building where the incident took place, using it for storage.

In criminal affidavits he filed with the court Dec. 9, 2025, Grace charged Helmling and Woodall with breaking and entering and possession of criminal tools. He named the responding PCSO deputies Clouden, Hawsman and Wittensoldner with dereliction of duty and deputy Irwin with criminal trespass.

Citing no probable cause, the court dismissed the charges against Woodall, Helmling, Clouden, Hawsman and Wittensoldner on Jan. 8, 2026, but took the case against Irwin under advisement. The next day, Jan. 9, 2026, Colley filed similar charges against Woodall, Helmling, Clouden, Hawsman and Wittensoldner.

Also on Jan, 9, 2026, Grace sought to have the case against him dismissed. He’d been charged with two first-degree misdemeanor charges of assault in connection with the July 13 incident. According to court filings, sheriff’s deputies alleged that Grace shoved [redacted], “making him fall into shelving,” grabbed [redacted] “by his neck” and punched him “in his body.”

Citing a conflict of interest with all three municipal court judges (Judge Mark Fankhauser, who has since died; Melissa Roubic; and himself), presiding Judge Kevin Poland on Feb. 3 ordered the recusal of all three.

The Supreme Court of Ohio has appointed retired Rocky River Municipal Court Judge Donna Fitzsimmons to preside over a second set of hearings, including the criminal case against Grace, set for March 16.

The fifth federal case naming the Portage County Sheriff’s Office in 2025 pitted Portage County resident Christopher Wilcox against multiple defendants, including the sheriff’s office, regarding ownership of a property in Ravenna Township.

The Portage County auditor’s office shows that Wilcox and co-borrower Virginia A. Edwards bought the home from her parents on June 22, 2018. The auditor’s office shows that she took sole ownership of the home on July 24, 2023.

Acting as his own attorney, Wilcox is suing to have what he regards as his real estate and personal property restored to him, punitive and compensatory damages, back rent/equity and legal fees.

His complaint states that deputies improperly retained his personal firearm and other property they allegedly seized when they escorted him to the property on Sept. 4, 2020. The case remains open.

Correction: An earlier version of this article reported that Brothers moved her case to federal court, when in fact it was the sheriff's office that petitioned to have the case moved.