Prosecutors: No molestation case against arrested Monte Rio therapist

The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office has declined to file molestation charges against a Monte Rio therapist who was accused of sexual abuse of a teenage client last October.

Sonoma County Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Staebell said that after reviewing the information provided by the Sheriff’s Office, prosecutors determined there was not sufficient evidence against Jeffrey Steven Cotton to prove the allegation beyond a reasonable doubt.

Cotton, 66, a longtime West County licensed marriage and family therapist, was arrested by sheriff’s deputies earlier this month following an investigation that began Oct. 15 when a 14-year-old boy told authorities Cotton gave him marijuana and sexually assaulted him.

Cotton’s attorney, Charles Applegate, called those accusations groundless.

“I assume the initial allegations were unfounded and unprovable, or else the District Attorney’s Office would have filed a charge of molestation,” he said Wednesday in an interview outside a Sonoma County courtroom. “Because they always prosecute those if there’s anything to it. Sometimes even when there’s nothing to it.”

Cotton appeared in Superior Court on Wednesday on the marijuana charge - supplying the drug to a minor. ?In an interview outside of court, Cotton said he was falsely accused by the 14-year-old boy.

“That was a hatchet job that one,” he said of the molestation accusation and resulting press coverage. “It had my picture and it alleged that I had done this stuff. It was such a drag.”

Cotton did not enter a plea on the marijuana charge, and his arraignment was continued to Jan. 31, as was a hearing on a proposed bail condition that would require Cotton not work as a therapist while out on bond.

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.