Jon Husted

In a political scandal packed with accusations, denials, and high-profile calls for resignation, one detail about Ohio Congressman Max Miller stands apart:

How did his 2-year-old daughter break her collarbone?

On Friday’s episode of Today in Ohio, podcast hosts discussed reporter Kaitlin Durbin’s examination of all of the known evidence in the case.

“What she found is that nobody, not Max Miller, not Emily Moreno, not the doctors or child welfare investigators, and not Bay Village police, not even the prosecutor’s office has been able to explain how Miller and Moreno’s two-year-old daughter broke her collarbone,” host Leila Atassi said.

Every institution with the authority and the tools to find an answer came up empty. The child welfare agency closed its investigation as unsubstantiated. Prosecutors reached the same conclusion — not enough admissible evidence to charge anyone.

According to Durbin’s reporting, the little girl appeared perfectly fine during a library story time with her nanny that morning. Her mother, Moreno, noticed bruising later that night during bath time. Both parents took the child to an emergency room but left because the wait was too long. The next day, X-rays revealed the hairline fracture.

Host Chris Quinn wasn’t willing to accept the “nobody knows” conclusion at face value.

“What I reject on this is that nobody knows. Somebody knows. Have you ever had a hairline fracture? Any bone?... There is no way this kid wasn’t in pain when this happened and was probably screaming in agony and continued to be in pain,” Quinn said.

Whoever was present when that injury occurred almost certainly witnessed a child in significant distress but did not disclose that to investigators. Why not? The official conclusion — that it simply cannot be determined — doesn’t erase that reality.

Atassi said the family has been caught in a cycle of suspicion for over a year. A year before the broken collarbone, Moreno claimed to notice bruises, scratches, and what she described as pinch marks after picking up their daughter from Miller’s care. That also triggered a child welfare investigation — which also ended without a finding of intentional abuse. There was yet another incident where Moreno thought she spotted bruising on their daughter’s neck during a custody exchange, rushed the child to urgent care, and doctors ultimately determined the mark was blue paint from arts and crafts that wiped away with an alcohol pad.

“I just feel so bad for their daughter. I mean, she’s two and she’s oblivious to what’s going on. But if this continues into her childhood. Poor, poor baby. This is ugly, ugly, ugly,” Atassi said.

Meanwhile, the political fallout from Moreno’s abuse allegations against Miller is accelerating. Sen. Jon Husted — who had previously been notably cautious about weighing in — this week called on Miller to resign, saying he should focus on his family. That’s a significant escalation, as Atassi noted, because it signals that pressure on Miller is no longer coming only from within his immediate family circle but is now spreading through Ohio’s Republican establishment.

Listen to the discussion here.

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