Midwest
Ohio mom lashes out at social worker who 'groomed,' raped 13-year-old son
The regret-ridden mother of a 13-year-old boy who was groomed and raped by his adult female social worker wishes she never let the predator in her home.
In a statement read in court Thursday, the unidentified mother told Payton Shires, of Ohio, that the abuse has devastated her son and negated any faith she had in the nation’s social services, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
“Instead, he was manipulated, groomed and sexually abused by Ms. Shires,” the statement read, according to the local newspaper. “I regret ever letting you in my house.”
Shires, 24, was sentenced to more than four years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender moving forward.
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Payton Shires was sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison June 27 for raping a 13-year-old client when she was a youth counselor. (LinkedIn/ USA TODAY NETWORK)
She pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor in May, along with other raps.
The victim’s mother said she began to notice alarming texts between Shires and her son late last year – including one where the counselor asked if he had deleted certain videos.
Investigators would later recover incriminating texts and at least one video showing them engaged in sexual acts.
Police orchestrated a three-way phone call between Shires and the mother, and the social worker acknowledged the illicit relationship.
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Payton Shires, 24, was sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison Thursday for raping a 13-year-old boy. (X )
Shires worked with the National Youth Advocate Program, which pairs foster children and other kids with counseling and support.
Shires was terminated after the allegations came to light.
The counselor was released on $50,000 bond after her arrest, and showed up at the victim’s home brandishing a gun.
The boy’s mother, she ranted, had destroyed her life by alerting authorities to their relationship. Shires, police said, threatened to kill the parent.
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Payton Shires apologized Thursday for raping a 13-year-old boy before she was sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison. (Franklin County Sheriff’s Office)
“I was not thinking rationally at the time that I showed up to the mother’s house,” she told the court Thursday, claiming that she was suicidal in that moment.
“I’m just thankful that she took the right steps to call the police,” Shires said, reasoning that the arrest prevented her from continuing farther down a dark path.
Shires asked Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott for mercy at the sentencing, telling the court that she has a 4-year-old son and suffered from longstanding and untreated mental illness.
But Serrott slammed Shires for her actions.
“He was a child,” the judge said before handing down the term. “He was trying to get the help he needed.”
Read the full article from Here
DETROIT (WXYZ) — Human remains were found in a furnace of an home on Detroit’s west side, the Detroit Police Department tells us.
The remains was found by an individual working on the home in the 5200 block of S Clarendon just after 11 a.m.
Anyone with information can call 313-596-2260 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-SpeakUp.
Stay with WXYZ.com for updates on this developing story.
MILWAUKEE — Former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan won’t serve prison time or probation and has been fined $5,000, a judge determined on Wednesday during her sentencing hearing.
It comes after a jury found her guilty of obstruction last year for helping an immigrant evade federal agents.
During the hearing, Dugan’s defense team called two character witnesses to the stand to speak on her behalf, including Rev. Gregory J. O’Meara, who is also a Marquette University Law School faculty member, and Janine Geske, the retired director of the Andrew Center for Restorative Justice and a law professor at Marquette.
“Hannah models what it means to be a Christian,” O’Meara said.
Dugan herself also spoke for the first time since the case against her began.
She told U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman that she tried to “maintain a courtroom with the decorum and safety the public deserves.”
Dugan added her actions on April 18, 2025, when the incident occurred, were “not done with any malicious intent or to advance any personal interest.”
Wrapping up her remarks, Dugan said to the court she has been cast as a scofflaw and a hero, but considers herself neither of those things.
“I am a public servant who’s just trying to do my job,” Dugan said, adding that she has had to retire from public life due to threats against her and her family.
A prosecutor then acknowledged that “she has experienced collateral damage because of her conduct,” but said “judges can’t choose to disregard the law.”
Prosecutors argued that Dugan’s actions amounted to an “abuse of trust” and asked the court’s sentence to reflect that.
Adelman then spoke, saying Dugan made a bad decision and that he doesn’t believe prison is necessary.
“This is a few minutes of conduct for someone who has dedicated her life to public service,” the judge said. “It’s a marked deviation from an otherwise law-abiding life.”
He also noted that Dugan’s actions didn’t stop the ICE agents from arresting the defendant outside the courthouse.
In April of last year, federal agents showed up at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who had reentered the country illegally. On that particular day, he was appearing before Dugan’s courtroom for a state battery case.
Dugan confronted the federal agents in a hallway outside the courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s office. Following that, she helped Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents eventually caught up to him outside the courthouse.
Dugan was later arrested and charged for her part in the incident, and she was found guilty of obstruction last December; she was acquitted on her concealment charge.
Her lawyers argued during her trial that President Donald Trump’s administration sought to “crush” Dugan in an effort to ensure judicial compliance with the ICE strategy of targeting immigrants as they showed up for court hearings.
Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution threatened “the independence of our judiciary.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who has the backing of Trump in his race for governor, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a social media post following her conviction.
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