Four women have accused the mayor of the wine country town of Windsor of sexual assault.
In the wake of these accusations, more than a dozen local and state lawmakers have demanded that Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli resign or be removed from office.
In a new investigative report by the San Francisco Chronicle published Thursday, four women reveal allegations against Foppoli, ranging from groping to rape, that date as far back as 2003.
The women claim Foppoli would try to isolate them from others and sexually assault them, often after a night of drinking and partying.
Foppoli, 37, is also a co-owner of the Christopher Creek Winery.
One woman told the paper she was 18 when she volunteered on his campaign for a seat in the state Assembly in 2003. The pair dated and she told the paper that he pressured her to drink alcohol for the first time at a party before raping her twice.
She shared several contemporaneous journal entries with the paper that documented the rapes.
Sophia Williams alleged that in 2006, she split a cab home from a nightclub with Foppoli, but the driver dropped them both off at his house where he got into bed with her. She said she had to lock herself in the bathroom for several hours to get away from him and fled in the early morning.
A friend who picked Williams up in the morning corroborated her account.
The most recent allegation is from Rose Fumero, who was an intern at a Sonoma County winery in 2019 when she encountered Foppoli, who was by then the mayor of Windsor.
Fumero said she met Foppoli at a party where he invited her to check out his car and then drove her to another house where he groped her, ignoring her when she repeatedly told him "no."
Two friends who were at the party with Fumero told the paper that they looked for her after she and Foppoli disappeared and said she later told them about the assault.
None of the women went to the police at the time.
Several said that his deep community ties discouraged them from coming forward initially.
Foppoli's lawyer said his client "categorically denies having engaged in any of the abuses described."
Related
