A San Francisco therapist assigned to help a troubled 14-year-old boy in juvenile detention center instead allegedly groomed the minor and had sex with him after he was released at age 17, according to court records and news reports.
The Contra County District Attorney’s office filed eight felony accounts this week against former behavioral health clinician Sofia Drotts, 26, that included counts of sexual intercourse, sending “harmful matter” to a minor, possession of child pornography, and “sexual penetration by a foreign object.”
Under California statutes, because of the victim’s age, and the defendant being nine years his senior, Drott’s alleged behavior is considered felony rape. Consent of the victim is not a defense.
Drotts was employed at John A. David Juvenile Detention Center in Martinez, located in the upper bay about 35 miles north of San Francisco. Such juvenile centers are charged with rehabilitating errant minors so they may have no criminal record and a shot at the straight-and-narrow upon release.
A lawsuit has also been filed by his family against the county in a separate case, the California and New York Posts reported, the lawsuit claiming the county should have spotted warning signs during Drotts’ tenure at the facility.
The mother of the victim, who has not been identified, has spoken out, the Post reported.
“We trusted this professional with our son’s healing and well-being, and that trust was fundamentally shattered,” the teen’s mother said. “Our focus now is entirely on our son’s recovery and protection.”
Concord Police arrested Drotts on July 14, after a probation department supervisor tipped off police to the relationship.
Civil Rights attorney John Burris, who represents the boy’s family and filed the civil complaint, told news outlets that the therapist began grooming the teen in 2024 when he was 14 or 15 years old. He was serving a two-year-sentence at the time, though details of that incarceration are not publicly available under juvenile law.
“During the two years in which Doe was incarcerated at the juvenile Hall, Drotts abused her position as his therapist to establish an inappropriate emotional connection with Doe, ‘grooming’ him with the objective of sexual abuse,” the lawsuit states.
Upon release, the “unlawful sexual content” proceeded, the suit alleged.
Drotts reportedly graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
The college singled out Drotts for praise as a psychology senior in 2022 on an Instagram post, with “certification in criminal justice, gender and women studies and chicano/a latino/a studies.”
The comment said she planned to study clinical psychology at the Palo Alto University near San Francisco.
“Way to Go, Sofia!” the entry concluded.
Drotts has since been released from jail, according to the Contra Costa Sheriff’s office, the California Post reported, though no bail amount was detailed. An arraignment date is pending at the time of publication.
Veteran crime writer Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets , which documents one of the worst cases of child sex abuse in U.S. history, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
