San Francisco Therapist Charged with Raping Teen Client After Juvenile Hall Assignment

Sofia Drotts, 26, faces felony charges including unlawful sexual intercourse after allegedly grooming and raping a teenage boy she treated at a Bay Area juvenile hall.

San Francisco Therapist Accused of Grooming and Sexually Assaulting Teenage Client

A 26-year-old behavioral health clinician from San Francisco is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly grooming a teenage boy over more than two years — and then raping him for three months after he was released from the juvenile facility where she worked as his therapist.

Bay Area prosecutors on Monday charged former clinician Sofia Drotts with unlawful sexual intercourse, sexual penetration by a foreign object, oral copulation of a person under 18, sending harmful matter to a minor, and possession of child pornography, the NY Post Metro reported.

Drotts was employed at John A. Davis Juvenile Hall in Martinez, California, where she was assigned the victim — identified in court papers as John Doe — as her client. According to the family's attorney, John Burris, Drotts began grooming the boy in 2024 when he was 14 or 15 years old and serving a two-year sentence at the Contra Costa County facility.

"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," court papers state.

After the boy was released on probation, Drotts continued to serve as his therapist through Contra Costa Health. Prosecutors allege she then had unlawful sexual contact with him between April 1 and July 14 of this year.

Concord Police arrested Drotts on July 14 after receiving a tip from a supervisor at the probation department, prosecutors said. She has since been released, according to the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office. An arraignment date is expected to be set by the Contra Costa Superior Court.

The boy's mother, who has not been publicly identified, condemned the alleged breach of professional trust in a statement.

"We trusted this professional with our son's healing and well-being, and that trust was fundamentally shattered," she said. "Our focus now is entirely on our son's recovery and protection."

She added that the family decided to speak out to protect others who may have been harmed.

"We are speaking out to ensure that no other family has to endure this pain, and to encourage anyone else who may have been harmed to find the strength to come forward," the mother said.

Attorney Burris, who represents the family in a separate civil lawsuit filed against the county, criticized the county's oversight of Drotts.

"Whatever protocols were in place to monitor young probationary employees did not work, and as a consequence of this, my young man was vulnerable to her conduct," Burris said. "We hope the criminal process will go forward expeditiously, and we will go forward in our civil case."

Court papers assert that "a team of county agents and supervisors failed to identify the red flags or supervise Drotts, and so the sexual abuse continued."

According to social media posts and a college publication website, Drotts is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied psychology with certificates in criminal justice, gender and women's studies, and Chicano/a Latino/a studies. The university singled her out in a 2022 Instagram post noting her plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Palo Alto University.

Drotts identified herself as a Spanish speaker and Chicago native on an author page where she contributed articles on college life.

Source: NY Post Metro