SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) -- Seven women have recently filed a lawsuit against former Windsor Mayor Dominic Fopolli, accusing him of sexual assault.
The lawsuit also alleges that his Sonoma County winery, Christopher Creek Winery, and a national charity organization enabled his actions.
This comes as Fopolli is under a criminal investigation by the California Attorney General's office.
It's been about a year since reports of women accusing Fopolli of sexual assault first came out. The lawyer representing these women says this lawsuit is all about accountability.
A new lawsuit filed in Sonoma County Superior Court against Fopolli accuses him of sexual assault and battery, domestic violence and several other causes of action.
"Our complaint alleges 13 different causes of action, anywhere from assault to gender violence, domestic violence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, interference of economic advantage," Attorney Traci Carillo said.
Carrillo represents the seven unnamed women in this civil lawsuit that also goes after Fopolli's businesses, including Christopher Creek Winery and a national children's charity, known as active 20-30.
The suit alleges these businesses and charitable organizations profited from Fopolli "luring" women to events and were aware of Fopolli's misconduct but never investigated, and therefore, enabled his behavior. The suit also alleges that many of these assaults happened during parties at Christopher Creek winery.
"We do think that Mr. Fopolli's behavior has been predatory in nature for many years and people turned a blind eye," Carillo said. "People enabled it and people created an arena for him to do what he did and as a result, a lot of people were harmed and so we're hoping to hold those people accountable."
The complaints against Fopolli span across 20 years.
In a joint statement to KRON4 News, the women said quote, "Today, we are taking charge of seeking justice in the civil court as we approach the one year anniversary of the beginning of this investigation."
Fopolli is currently under investigation by the California attorney general's office with nine women accusing him of sexual assault.
Carrillo says that investigation could slow the process of this civil lawsuit.
"The interesting piece is because there's a still open pending case and whether Mr. Fopolli would exercise his right to not participate in a civil case so we expect that the civil case could be delayed as a result," she stated. "We don't know until the answers come and they start engaging in the process."
This is the first civil complaint filed against Fopolli.
KRON4 was unsuccessful in reaching out to him for comment.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/MFOJG2N
No comments:
Post a Comment