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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A central Ohio social worker convicted of sexual conduct with one of her underage clients received her sentence Thursday.
Payton Shires, 24, faced up to 28 ½ years in prison. She will serve four years and nine months in prison, according to the prosecutor's office. She will also have to register as a Tier II sex offender every 180 days for the next 25 years.
The social worker from Mount Sterling previously pleaded guilty to seven of eight total charges on May 28, including four counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, two counts of intimidating a witness and one count of inducing panic, records from Franklin County Common Pleas Court show. A count of discharging a firearm was dropped, but the inducing panic charge includes a one-year firearm specification.
The felony charges stemmed from her being accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in Columbus, who she was assigned to provide mental health counseling services through the National Youth Advocate Program.
Columbus police first got involved when the teen’s mother called them to report text messages she found between him and Shires. The social worker had asked the 13-year-old if he deleted videos, and if his mother had seen them or messages between them, a detective wrote in a criminal complaint document.
The mother gave her son’s phone to the Columbus Division of Police as evidence. After a warrant was issued, investigators found a video of Shires engaging in sexual acts with the teen on the device. The criminal complaint said CPD then joined the mother for a phone call with Shires, where she admitted to participating in sexual acts with the 13-year-old. When officers took her in for questioning, she admitted that she participated in multiple sex acts with the boy. Court records indicated the incidents took place on Sept. 16, Sept. 22 and Sept. 27 of 2023.
Shires was also charged with two counts of witness intimidation when Columbus police said she violated the terms of her $500,000 bond and went to the victim’s home. There, she threatened to kill the mother of the victim and herself. She reportedly was in possession of a gun and fired a shot when she arrived at the home on Oct. 26.
The victim’s mother filed a civil lawsuit against Shires and the National Youth Advocate Program, accusing it of failing to remove her son from Shires’ care when she alerted the nonprofit of the inappropriate sexual relationship. Columbus police said in October that Shires was no longer employed with the National Youth Advocate Program, but did not say if she was terminated as a result of the investigation or before it started.
The lawsuit's complaint document detailed that from August to September 2023, Shires engaged in sexual acts with the teen victim in multiple places in Franklin and other Ohio counties “within the course and scope of her employment with NYAP.” The mother informed the nonprofit of what was happening on Sept. 22, two weeks before police would take Shires into custody.
State records confirmed that Shires’ social work license remained active as of Thursday. There were no details available regarding a possible suspension or forfeiture.
