Deputies took local cop’s child away without evidence of endangerment, Ohio suit says
An Ohio sheriff’s office built a child endangerment case against a single mother working as a local police officer, ultimately arresting her and removing her then 5-year-old child from her care, according to a lawsuit.
However, a lawsuit filed on Jan. 2 by the 29-year-old woman said the Portage County government and sheriff’s office ignored a lack of evidence in the case and embarked on a “malicious prosecution” against her. She’s seeking $500,000 in damages.
McClatchy News reached out to the Portage County Board of Commissioners and Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski but did not immediately receive a response.
In 2023, the deputies started to investigate allegations that the officer was allowing her 5-year-old child to be around a registered sex offender while unsupervised, the lawsuit said.
Detectives positioned themselves in multiple locations in the community of Mantua on Dec. 7, 2023, as part of their investigation, but none of the deputies observed the child in the unsupervised care of a sex offender, according to the complaint.
Those detectives testified under oath that they did not observe the child in the care of a registered sex offender, the lawsuit said. One detective said the accusations against the mother were “unfounded” and “not accurate,” court documents said.
However, less than a month later, the mother, who was working as a school resource officer, was charged with child endangerment, a misdemeanor.
“The criminal complaint alleged that ‘on December 7, 2023, in the Village of Mantua, Ohio’ that [the mother] ‘allows [a registered sex offender] to spend extended periods of time alone with [the child],” the lawsuit said.
The complaint said this statement contradicts the testimony given by the detectives.
Deputies arrested the woman during a traffic stop on Jan. 1, 2024, and placed her child in foster care, according to the lawsuit. The woman gave investigators her child’s tablet and her cellphone to be searched.
The lawsuit said investigators did not find evidence on the devices, but they did find “private” images of the mother that were “not relevant to the investigation of Endangering Children,” according to court documents.
These images were shared across the sheriff’s office, according to court documents.
Additionally, the lawsuit said other “similarly situated parents” would not have been arrested if they were prosecuted for the same charge and would instead be summoned to court.
During an April hearing, witnesses again said they did not observe any criminal acts, the lawsuit said.
The child endangerment charge was dismissed by a judge in July, according to court records.
Due to the criminal charges, the mother was suspended and prohibited from working overtime or off-duty as a police officer in Mantua, according to the lawsuit. The prosecution “would also likely make it impossible for her to be hired at another law enforcement agency,” court documents said.
Mantua is about a 40-mile drive southeast from Cleveland.
This story was originally published January 6, 2025 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Deputies took local cop’s child away without evidence of endangerment, Ohio suit says."
