Dominic Foppoli formally resigns as Florida police report shows he faces sexual battery allegation from Farrah Abraham

Dominic Foppoli, who officially resigned as Windsor mayor on Monday, is being investigated by police in Palm Beach, Florida on suspicion of felony sexual battery, according to newly released law enforcement records.

Foppoli, in an April 2 report, is accused of using his “hands/feet/teeth” as a weapon in an undated encounter at a single-family home in the wealthy Florida enclave.

The Palm Beach report does not name Foppoli, 39, or his accuser, former reality television personality Farrah Abraham, but a Palm Beach police spokesman said Foppoli was the subject of the investigation and Abraham’s attorney has confirmed that she initiated the April 2 report.

“The [cover] sheet is being released in regards to a sexual battery investigation involving Mr. Foppoli,” Palm Beach Police Department Capt. Will Rothrock said in a phone interview on Monday.

The single page of the police report was released by Palm Beach police Monday, when Foppoli made his resignation official in an email to Windsor Town Manager Ken MacNab. His formal notice came after Foppoli signaled in a Friday statement that he would step down amid a mounting number of claims from women who have accused him of sexual assault, abuse or misconduct. Abraham was the ninth woman to level a public accusation.

Foppoli, who was first elected in 2014 and won the mayor’s post in a direct election last year, made no reference to the scandal in his brief notice to MacNab, but said he was stepping down with the “heaviest of hearts.” He thanked city staff for their dedication — work that he said made Windsor “the greatest town in America.”

He signed off with the complimentary closing, “Your mayor.”

In the city’s own statement, MacNab welcomed the end to a “negative and tragic chapter” for the town. “This has been a distraction, to say the least,” MacNab said. “We can now turn to helping everyone who has been impacted by these allegations to heal.”

But the new revelations from Florida indicated that scrutiny of Foppoli, under investigation by law enforcement on both coasts, is likely to grow.

Abraham, 29, has a national profile for her past appearances on two MTV reality shows and is a frequent presence on celebrity news pages. TMZ and People magazine are among the outlets that have now published stories on her allegations against Foppoli.

The incident reported by Abraham occurred at a home that did not belong to either the accuser or the suspect, said Rothrock, the Palm Beach police captain. The report was initially publicized with a different classification in error, he said.

Investigators are not releasing the address of the residence, he said.

The report date was six days before the first four women to publicly accuse Foppoli of sexual assault, abuse or misconduct came forward in an April 8 story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Abraham’s involvement became public after Foppoli’s initial resignation statement on Friday referred in part to her, without naming her.

Rothrock said the accuser is not named in the police report under a Florida state governing identification of victims of alleged sex crimes.

Abraham’s attorney, Spencer Kuvin, told The Press Democrat on Friday that his client had reported on April 2 an assault that occurred at the end of March. Like Foppoli, Abraham was visiting Palm Beach at that time, Kuvin said.

Abraham, a Los Angeles resident, was in town for a charity event in Palm Beach for an animal rescue organization called Big Dog Ranch, Kuvin said. Abraham made a March 14 Instagram post about the event, which was held at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

In his resignation statement Friday, Foppoli said he was visiting Florida in March. He accused Abraham of making her allegations “after she learned of the April 8, 2021 San Francisco Chronicle story,” though Abraham went to police six days before that story published.

“I have no doubt she is making these allegations in an attempt to leverage the situation to her advantage,” he wrote.

Foppoli’s suggestion that Abraham made her police report because of the unfolding news story was “absurd and unsettling to my client,” Kuvin said.

“She went to police immediately after [the alleged battery] occurred and reported it,” he said. “My client’s goal is that Foppoli be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law by the criminal justice system.”

In his resignation, Foppoli referred to “lawful, but poor choices, I have made in the recent past.” He said he would “eventually be cleared of all wrongdoing.”

Orchid Vaghti, Foppoli’s Santa Rosa-based criminal attorney, did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Abraham had physical and digital evidence from the encounter with Foppoli that has been turned over to police, Kuvin said. He confirmed Abraham has talked to Sonoma County sheriff’s investigators but wouldn’t clarify the extent of their communication. The sheriff’s office and California Attorney General’s Office are together leading a separate criminal investigation related to alleged sexual crimes.

Kuvin played a prominent role in civil lawsuits against the late sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein, telling The Press Democrat he represented nine of the notorious financier’s victims in Florida cases. Kuvin also represented Chloe Goins, who sued Bill Cosby over an alleged sexual assault in California courts.

If the criminal justice system fails to hold Foppoli accountable, Abraham will likely look to such civil lawsuits, Kuvin said. He said was “not yet” representing any other clients.

The Windsor Town Council will officially acknowledge Foppoli’s resignation on June 2, its next scheduled meeting.

From there, the council will take steps to fill the new vacancy — the second the town will now have to fill this year. The council can appoint a new mayor from among the four remaining council members, and then fill the vacant council seat through either an appointment or a special election. Or it could fill the mayor’s seat itself through an election or appointment.

Already this month, Windsor held a special election to fill the seat Foppoli vacated in January when he ascended to his role as the town’s first at-large mayor. Rosa Reynoza, a longtime candidate but a political outsider, emerged victorious in that May 4 election. She is scheduled to be seated on June 2.

Read Windsor’s press release on Foppoli’s official resignation

Read Foppoli’s notice of resignation

Read the Florida incident report

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88.