Sheriff: Woman charged after ‘repeatedly’ giving boy alcohol

BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio (WXIX/Gray News) - An Ohio woman faces criminal charges after repeatedly giving a 6-year-old boy alcoholic beverages, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies cited 26-year-old Victoria Hampton with child endangerment and contributing to the unruliness or delinquency of a child. They first encountered Hampton and the 6-year-old boy around 8:30 p.m. Aug. 5 at a Marathon gas station, where they were called for a welfare check, WXIX reports.

Hampton was speaking with the deputies when the boy, whom she called her son, “came running to us with an open Smirnoff Ice in his hand,” the incident report read. The boy said he’d opened the Smirnoff with his mouth.

Hampton explained the boy had grabbed the Smirnoff from a set she’d just bought without her realizing it. The deputies told her to pay closer attention to the boy and his actions. She apologized and said it “would never happen again,” according to the report. She then threw the opened Smirnoff in the trash, and the deputies let her leave.

The gas station manager told the deputies they wanted Hampton trespassed from the business, prompting the deputies to go to her home to tell her. While there, one of the deputies allegedly saw the boy unsupervised on his scooter with an open Smirnoff Ice in his hand. The deputy contacted children services.

Minutes later, the boy’s father, Justin Sorrell, got to the residence.

Sorrell said Hampton is not the boy’s biological mother, explaining instead she’s a friend of his and that she’d moved in a couple of weeks ago “to help her out because she had been going through hard times,” the report read.

Sorrell said he had no idea Hampton had given his son alcohol because he’d been at work all day, according to the report.

The 6-year-old told the deputies Hampton had been giving him Smirnoffs “regularly and that it helps him sleep at night,” the report read.

Deputies took the boy to his biological mother’s residence. They arrested Hampton and Sorrell, who had outstanding traffic warrants out of Miami Township.

Hampton remains at the Butler County Jail, as of Wednesday.