Windsor Town Council Meets to Consider Foppoli’s Status
On Wednesday evening the Windsor Town Council will hold an emergency meeting to consider possible next steps in the case of Mayor Dominic Foppoli. A week ago a San Francisco Chronicle newspaper story detailed the accounts of 4 women who claim the Windsor Mayor sexually assaulted them in incidents from 2003 to 2019. Since then two other women, one of them fellow Town Council member Esther Lemus, have also publicly stated that they were assaulted by Foppoli.
At the meeting, to be held at 6PM via Zoom and broadcast on cable, the Council will consider actions related to removing Foppoli from office. First appointed to the mayor’s seat in 2018, Foppoli ran for and won an additional term in office in 2020. That term ends in 2022.
According to legal experts, under California statutes an elected official can be removed from office only if convicted of a felony or as the result of a successful recall drive. Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch has recused her office from involvement in the case due to a possible conflict of interest. This is because, besides serving on the Town Council, one of Foppoli’s accusers, Esther Lemus, is also a deputy district attorney for Sonoma County.
The state Attorney General’s office will now be responsible for investigating and possibly bringing charges against Foppoli.
At the emergency meeting the public will have the opportunity to contribute questions, and Town Council members will discuss options including supporting a local recall campaign against Foppoli that is currently being organized.
For his part Foppoli has issued a statement denying the allegations and characterizing them as politically motivated. He has so far refused to consider stepping down from his post as mayor.
As part of a prominent Sonoma County winemaking family, Foppoli served as the CEO of the Christopher Creek Winery. On Sunday his elder brother Joe Foppoli announced that he had asked Foppoli to resign that post.
The detailed and specific allegations laid out in the newspaper story have brought a cascade of condemnation from elected officials, with all 8 other Sonoma County mayors, both of the area’s US Congressmen, all members of the county Board of Supervisors, and many others calling on Foppoli to resign as Windsor mayor.
For more information about Wednesday’s Windsor Town Council meeting, visit this link:
Author: newsofthenorthbay
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