Once a star of the criminal justice reform crusade, former Massachusetts prosecutor Adam Foss has been indicted in Manhattan for allegedly raping a 27-year-old woman as she slept in her hotel room.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the indictment Tuesday against Foss, 42, of Los Angeles, in connection with the attack that occurred at an undisclosed Midtown hotel in 2017.
On Oct. 21 of that year, according to court records, Foss allegedly met the then 25-year-old woman at the location after communicating with her for a month through phone calls and texts.
Foss allegedly made numerous sexual advances, all of which the woman refused. But after she fell asleep, prosecutors said, Foss allegedly raped her.
The survivor later came forward to Bragg’s office and filed a complaint against Foss, who was subsequently investigated and indicted on first-degree charges of rape and sexual abuse.
“I thank this brave survivor, who had the courage to come forward and share her story,” said Bragg. “Our Special Victims Division is survivor-centered and trauma-informed, and we encourage anyone who believes they have been the victim of a sex crime to call our Hotline at 212-335-9373. Our prosecutors, investigators, and service providers are available to help.”
Foss had founded “Prosecutor Impact,” a nonprofit organization which had aimed to seek out criminal justice reform within state and district attorneys’ offices across the United States. He had formerly served as a prosecutor himself in the Suffolk County, MA District Attorney’s office before becoming a high-profile activist on the reform campaign.
However, Foss fell out of favor after allegations surfaced in 2019 that he sexually harassed young female interns while he worked as a prosecutor between 2008 and 2016. It led the Suffolk County, MA District Attorney’s office to launch an independent investigation which found that, while he acted inappropriately with the interns, he did not commit a crime.
Prosecutor Impact seemed to have ceased all public activity in 2019. Its Twitter account hasn’t been updated since then, and its home page, found through a Google search, has a “file not found” error.
