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Charges involving child sex abuse have been filed against a former behavioral health clinician in Contra Costa County and the alleged victim’s family is also preparing to sue the county, the District Attorney’s Office and lawyers for the family said Monday.
San Francisco resident Sofia Ann-Buitron Drotts is facing seven felony charges for alleged unlawful intercourse with a minor, sending harmful matter to a minor, being in possession of child or youth pornography, and other counts of sex abuse involving a minor, prosecutors said.
Drotts was employed as a behavioral health clinician at the John Davis Juvenile Detention Center in Martinez, where she was assigned “John Doe” as a client, the District Attorney’s Office said.
After Doe was released from custody, Drotts allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with him between April 1 and July 14 of this year. Police in Concord were tipped off to the case after a supervisor in the probation department spoke to them. Drotts was arrested on July 14.
The parents of Doe have filed a claim against the county with the help of Oakland-based civil rights attorney John Burris, who said in a news release that Drotts allegedly began grooming the teen when he was 14 or 15 years old in 2024.
“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 claim states.
The claim also alleges that a “team of County agents and supervisors failed to identify the red flags or supervise Drotts, and so the sexual abuse continued.”
Contra Costa County officials didn’t immediately respond Monday to a request for comment on the allegations.
According to Burris’ office, the abuse came to light in June after the boy broke the terms of his release, which he allegedly did with Drotts’ encouragement — missing school and ignoring his curfew “to rendezvous with Drotts in violation of his probation,” the claim reads, the filing of which is the first step in the process of suing the county.
The claim targets Contra Costa County, Contra Costa Health, Contra Costa County Juvenile Detention and Contra Costa County Juvenile Probation Department, among other agencies.
– Story by Kiley Russell and Katy St. Clair, Bay City News Service
