The mother of a California teenager who was allegedly sexually assaulted by his juvenile hall therapist says her son has disappeared from home, leaving her worried he may be trying to see the clinician despite court-imposed restrictions.
Sofia Drotts, a 26-year-old former juvenile hall counselor from San Francisco, was released on bail after prosecutors filed multiple felony counts against her Monday, including unlawful sexual intercourse, tied to her alleged relationship with the teen.
Drotts was taken into custody two weeks earlier amid accusations that she groomed and raped the boy while she was providing counseling services to him at a Contra Costa County juvenile hall.
Authorities allege that after the teen was released, Drotts continued the relationship in secret, pretending to be his teenage girlfriend and using a burner phone to communicate with him.
The boy’s mother, whose name is being withheld to protect her son’s identity, told The California Post she fears her 17-year-old may have returned to the former therapist.
According to the mother, her son believes the relationship with Drotts was consensual and vanished around the same time the former counselor was arrested by police.
“He just left,” the worried mother said, describing the sudden disappearance.
“I don’t know where he is. I hope he’s not with her.”
She added that her son had been in constant contact with Drotts since his April release and that he was on a video call with her at the exact moment she was arrested by Concord Police.
The mom alleged that Drotts painstakingly groomed the teen for more than two years while she provided therapy, duping the family into thinking she was a concerned caregiver.
Instead of Drotts treating the the teen, his mom claimed, the therapist conned the boy into falling for her.
“She was very professional, very caring,” the mother explained. “Like she always had my son’s best interest at heart.”
She had no idea Drotts was allegedly victimizing her son until the arrest.
When she confronted her son, he said the allegations were false.
“What if it was consensual?” the teen asked his stunned mother.
The boy then ran off and hasn’t been seen by his family since — except for one occasion when he stopped home to take a shower and cut off his ankle monitor, his mom said.
He also missed a probationary court date and a warrant has been issued for his arrest, she added.
Drotts did not return calls for comment.
She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment on charges including sexual penetration by a foreign object, sending harmful matter to a minor, oral copulation of a person under 18 years of age and possessing child pornography.
She has retained a private attorney, who declined to comment on the case.
Investigators say Drotts began grooming the boy in 2024, when he was 14 or 15 years old.
At the time, the boy — identified as John Doe in court papers — was serving two years in a Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall, where Drotts was assigned as his therapist.
“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 and allegedly had “unlawful sexual contact” with him, the court papers say.
The documents also state that a “team of County agents and supervisors failed to identify the red flags or supervise Drotts, and so the sexual abuse continued.”
Attorney John Burris, who is representing the boy’s family in a civil suit against Contra Costa County County, said supervisors failed to protect the boy from Drotts.
“We’re very hopeful that a significant conviction occurs, to send a clear message to the to the young man that there’s this is not a love affair — no matter what your feelings are,” Burris said. “The young man is emotionally torn up over this.”
According to posts on social media and content published on a college publication website, Drotts is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
The college heaped praise on Drotts in a 2022 Instagram post that identified her as a psychology major with certificates in criminal justice, gender and women studies, and chicano/a latino/a studies.
“After graduation, she’s off to the Golden State to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Palo Alto University,” the post read. “Way to go, Sofia!”
Drotts identified herself as a Spanish speaker and Chicago native on an author page for a publication to which she contributed a number of articles on college life.
Drotts is due back in court again in August. A police investigation into the case is ongoing.
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