A former social worker in Florida was sentenced to six years in prison on Wednesday for having sex with a teenager she had adopted, authorities said.
Lauren Michelle Myres — a 26-year-old woman previously employed as a caseworker at Families First Network — was charged back in May following a tip to authorities indicating she was having an inappropriate relationship with the 17-year-old victim, First Judicial Circuit State Attorney William Eddins announced Thursday.
The victim had been assigned to Myres as one of the children she was tasked to assist at the nonprofit child protective services agency based in Pensacola.
“She eventually decided to foster the victim and ultimately adopted him,” Eddins wrote in a news release. “After the adoption was finalized, it was discovered that Myres had been having sex with the victim.”
Myres and the teen told investigators that they had sex several times throughout a span of two months, Eddins said.
Myres pleaded no contest last week to one count of unlawful sexual activity with certain minors. She will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life and cannot have contact with the victim or other minors upon her release, Eddins said.
The boy told police after Myres’ arrest that he didn’t think sex with her was wrong because he “was not being raped and was about to be 18,” the Northwest Florida Daily News reported.
“I can’t say I’ve ever seen a case like this where an adoption occurred and sex occurred shortly thereafter,” Okaloosa County Chief Assistant State Attorney Bill Bishop told the newspaper on Thursday. “There have been cases of older women having sex with young boys across the country, but this is the first I’ve ever seen.”
Myres worked for the Families First Network for more than two years, a spokeswoman told the newspaper. No “red flags” were spotted prior to her hiring, spokeswoman Tish Pennewill said.
Myres, who was fired following her arrest, had been divorced for just nine days when she was arrested, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.