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Former Suffolk County prosecutor acquitted of rape charges
Former Suffolk County assistant district attorney and prominent criminal justice reform advocate Adam Foss has been acquitted of rape and sexual abuse charges.
A Manhattan jury reached the verdict Friday, according to Foss's attorney.
"As Mr. Foss turns the page on this chapter, he looks forward to time with his wife and young son and is carefully evaluating his legal options to address the grave impact these false accusations have had on his life," said Foss's attorney Priya Chaudhry in an emailed statement.
After Foss left the Suffolk County District Attorney's office in 2016, he became a well-known criminal justice reform advocate. He often spoke nationally about efforts to reduce incarceration and founded the nonprofit 'Prosecutor Impact.'
Foss was accused of raping a woman in a New York hotel room in 2017. The Manhattan district attorney's office indicted Foss on the charges in 2021. His attorneys argued their encounter was consensual.
After a 2020 online essay alleging Foss engaged in sexual misconduct, former Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins, who took office three years after Foss left, hired an independent investigator to look into allegations that Foss acted inappropriately with women while he was a prosecutor in the Boston office.
The investigation, done by the law firm Goodwin Proctor, found that Foss did not engage in criminal conduct, but did engage in "concerning conduct with female interns." The lawyers leading the review said they interviewed 28 people and searched electronic documents.
Foss denied the allegations in the online essay, saying "some of my callous and insensitive behavior has caused many people anguish, but I deny any allegations of nonconsensual sexual relations."
"The eagerness of the DA’s office to initiate charges in the wake of defamatory social media posts, rather than based on a foundation of solid evidence, is troubling and undermines the principles of due process and justice," defense attorney Chaudhry's statement said.
