An Investigative Series by The Chief
Reader Warning: This series will contain graphic details of rape, racism, sexual assault, and straight up deplorable behavior by Dominic Foppoli and his colleagues who covered for him. Reader discretion is advised.
In addition to my experience, Dominic was accused of sexual assault and rape by these women who were brave enough to go on the record sans 1 or 2 to the SF Chronical.
In 2003 Foppoli had aspirations at the young age of 21 to be the youngest person elected to the CA Assembly. He met an 18-year-old who volunteered for his campaign; he knew the family through his church. The girl said she admired his conservative values and catholic faith; she was looking for an unpaid campaign position. Foppoli and his female campaign manager decided the best place for an 18-year-old girl, was personal assistant to the candidate. Yep, read that again folks, 21-year-old candidate, and an 18-year-old female would be his assistant. He took advantage of her, who would have thought? He groped and fondled her twice, leading her to break up with him shortly after Foppoli lost the GOP primary for his campaign. On December 31 of that same year, he convinced her to go out with him to “ring in the New Year” one last time. She reluctantly agreed. While out that evening Dominic and Liam pressured her to drink champagne. If you aren’t a drinker or are a “rookie in the drinking game” champagne will get you very sick and inebriated quite quickly, also make note of her age 18. Dominic drove her back to his house, groped her buttocks, and tried to pull her skirt down, she fought back, even saying she was “on her period” it didn’t stop him, he raped her and whilst doing so she turned her head and threw up over the bed. She woke up later with Dominic raping her again. He drove her home in the morning, joking about how they were both drunk. She was 18.
Dominic in 2006 met Sophia Williams at a junior college while taking a dance class. Sophia was typically his dance partner, but as is customary, you danced with one another’s partners in this class. Keep in mind this was a social gathering type atmosphere, but also a class, for… you know adults. My source told me Dominic wore out his welcome quickly, he always wanted to dance with the better-looking girls, and was extremely handsy, and loved touching the lower back, and arm pit area. No one wanted to dance with him eventually. Sophia and a few friends hung out with Dominic at a dance club after class. They drank quite a large amount of booze, she wanted to get a cab, Dominic called Uber. They both stumbled into the back seat. It wasn’t until most of the way through the ride she realized they weren’t going to her place first; it was straight to Dominic’s place. Dominic offered her his bed, and he would take the floor. (Remind anyone of his same playbook from the dorm room earlier?) She crashed on the bed, Dominic climbing in behind her, he put his hand down her pants, she fought him off. He used leverage to pin her against the wall, she broke free, and locked herself in his bathroom until morning when a friend could safely pick her up.
Prior to 2012, Dominic became very active in a group for young professionals called Active 20-30. He was a big wig in the all men’s Santa Rosa chapter. A short time after, his reputation became one of “toxic masculinity.” He was known as a big partier and loved pouring drinks for others. He had a well-known reputation for paling around with much younger women, an allegation that gets much creepier after you leave college. At a convention of these young professionals in Reno, Dominic found his next victim. Allison Britton was having fun like any other young person in Reno, drinking, gambling, and enjoying herself…maybe a little too much, but we all have likely been there. Visibly intoxicated, Britton’s friends had asked Dominic to take her back to her room, Dominic took her back to his room. She passed out, she came to with her top off, on her knees in his hotel room bathroom with his Johnson in her mouth. Terrified she wanted to know what was going on, all Dominic could say is “can I finish on your chest.” Britton learned later she drank more alcohol with Dominic and that his roommate was fast asleep in the bed next to his while this all went down. Shortly thereafter a list of top ten things not to do in Active 20-30 included get this: Dominic Foppoli.
A fourth women came forward named Rose Fomuso. She was a winery intern at Dominic’s Christopher Creek Winery, and an exchange student from France to boot. She wanted to learn the finer points of winemaking and served in the tasting room. Toward the end of her stay, Foppoli threw a large party. Dominic of course made sure she was invited. During the evening she fell ill, even though she consumed a “normal amount of alcohol for her.” Dominic wanted to show her his white Tesla. She got in, he started the car, drove her around, and tried to rape her. Her internship having been finished, she returned to France, telling her coordinators not to send anyone to Christopher Creek again. She too claims to have been drugged by Dominic.
A fifth women, Shannon McCarthy, came out and said she was sexually abused during a relationship with Dominic from 2001-2004. More of the same, copious amounts of liquor, and not knowing when to stop or hold off. She was forced by Dominic into oral copulation more times than she wants to recall, and once Dominic handcuffed her to the bed, raping her of course.
Dominic was also accused by a woman who stayed at the guesthouse on his winery property of sexual assault as well. The details were a little foggy on this one, but it involved Dominic inviting himself to dinner and joining a few women in a hot tub. Dominic refilled the wine glasses, seems to be his “go to move” and while getting his guests intoxicated, he attempted to remove their bikini bottoms. Foppoli also had a couple of his employees there, he instructed them to remove their underwear and don bed sheets to be worn as a toga. What an absolute sick fuck this guy is!
The 6th and definitely not last accuser is fellow councilmember Esther Lemus, who doubles as a deputy DA in the District Attorney’s Office. I will let her words tell the story….
What Lemus said she does remember is attending a Windsor Boys & Girls Club crab feed in February 2020, during which she got up at one point and returned to learn from Foppoli’s then-girlfriend that he had refilled her glass. There was dancing and music, and then Lemus, Foppoli, his girlfriend and another male friend, whom she declined to identify, stopped by a brewpub before going home. Lemus’ husband had left earlier.
At some point, Lemus learned later, she left the group and was found outside becoming violently ill. The two men then left Foppoli’s girlfriend at the pub to drive Lemus home, but they were gone so long the girlfriend finally walked home, she later told Lemus.
Lemus, 48, was becoming ill again as she arrived home, and went into the bathroom. At one point she sat on the bathtub to remove her shoes, and fell in.
The next morning, she awoke on the couch, nude, with a small towel placed on her and the growing fear that she had been sexually violated.
But Lemus said she does not remember even leaving the crab feed. When she called Foppoli’s girlfriend the next day to find out what had happened to her, the woman said Foppoli had told her “he put me to bed, tucked me in or something,” Lemus said.
She said she cannot recall what happened inside her home. She was in pain and had rectal bleeding when she awoke, she said. She said she believes she was raped and sodomized while unconscious by Foppoli and/or the other man who drove her home. She said the experience of feeling drugged in his presence — that night and during a second assault that she said happened six months later at Foppoli’s winery — prompted her belief he was responsible.
The second incident occurred in August 2020 when she attended a gathering at Foppoli’s winery. She said Foppoli had inexplicably taken her phone and keys much earlier in the night. She later experienced the same cloudy disorientation and amnesia that she had felt after the February crab feed. She said she recalls being led off by a man Foppoli had just introduced to her, saying his friend “liked me,” and finding herself engaged in oral copulation in the tasting room.
She was next aware of falling and hurting herself some place, which Foppoli would later tell her was a vineyard. She later became violently ill. She eventually woke up and drove home.
Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli, council member Esther Lemus accuse each other of sexual misconduct
More to come tomorrow featuring Dominic’s reaction to the article in the Chronicle as well as his statements regarding Mrs. Lemus.
The Chief
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