After resigning amid sexual assault allegations, Dominic Foppoli files documents to run for Windsor mayor

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Former Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli, who resigned his post in May after nine women accused him of sexual assault and misconduct in a series of Chronicle investigations, has filed documents signifying his intention to run for mayor next year.

Foppoli, 39, submitted a candidate statement of intent to officials in Windsor on Tuesday. The column’s reporters obtained a copy of the file and spoke to two city council members who said they looked at it.

The former mayor, co-owner of a winery just north of town, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Foppoli has previously denied all allegations of sexual assault, but said he would resign because he “didn’t want undue national attention to negatively impact the Windsor community due to legal, but poor choices. , which I did recently “.

Foppoli is the subject of criminal investigations in Sonoma County and Palm Beach, Florida over allegations of sexual assault. He is also the subject of two state inquiries into potential violations of California’s campaigning and political ethics laws.

Additionally, in May, Windsor officials asked the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office to allow a grand jury investigation into “Dominic Foppoli’s” willful or corrupt misconduct in power. ” The request was forwarded to the attorney general’s office.

News of the case sent shockwaves through the small town of Wine Country, which suffered a weeks-long standoff with Foppoli in April after refusing to answer calls for his resignation from colleagues and community.

The sexual assault allegations first came to light in an April 8 Chronicle investigation, which documented accounts from four women who said Foppoli groped them, raped them, or engaged in non-consensual oral copulation.

One of those women, Sophia Williams, said on Wednesday that she was horrified that Foppoli was considering another candidacy. “I can’t believe it’s real. It’s like a tabloid article, like he’s just trying to shake things up, because who in their right mind would try to show up again? Said Williams, who accused Foppoli of forcibly kissing and groping her in 2006. “I would never want to show my face in the light of day again and here it is – I just can’t be under the projectors. “

Windsor City Council member Rosa Reynoza said that as a resident of Windsor, Foppoli qualifies for the seat of mayor general, but the decision “will reopen the pain in our city it has caused” .

“He obviously thinks he hasn’t done anything wrong and thinks he has enough support at Windsor to feel comfortable taking those papers away,” Reynoza said. “But only time will tell what Windsor thinks exactly of this person and what decision she will make in November 2022.”

This story will be updated.

Alexandria Bordas and Cynthia Dizikes are the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] [email protected] Twitter: @crossingbordas @cdizikes

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