For the first time since sexual assault allegations surfaced against him in 2021, former Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli sat before a jury Wednesday as a civil trial opened in Sonoma County Superior Court, brought by seven women who say he assaulted them over nearly two decades.

The proceeding — the first accountability hearing of any kind, civil or criminal, to reach a jury in Foppoli's case, according to the Press Democrat and Sonoma County court records — lays bare how completely the criminal justice system bypassed the former North Bay politician. Foppoli resigned as Windsor's mayor in 2021 after a San Francisco Chronicle investigation exposed widespread assault allegations, yet he has never been criminally charged. Wednesday's opening statements made plain that a Sonoma County jury may now be the only body that ever weighs the evidence against him.

Opening statements delivered before Judge Dana Simonds on July 15 offered the jury two sharply conflicting accounts of the former mayor's conduct.

Plaintiffs' attorney Traci Carrillo told the jury that Foppoli spent roughly twenty years exploiting his political standing and North Bay wine-industry connections to assault women — girlfriends, professional contacts, and new acquaintances he allegedly kept plied with alcohol at winery events. According to the SF Chronicle's trial coverage, Carrillo quoted Foppoli's own words back at the jury: "You don't need roofies if you give them enough wine." She further alleged he was facilitated by well-connected members of the North Bay charity circuit, including the children's organization Active 20-30, and recited a text message she attributed to Foppoli — "Bring some pussy" — as evidence of his stated intentions. The Chronicle reported both quotations from Carrillo's opening.

"The long road was a criminal investigation," Carrillo told ABC7. "They were let down by the criminal system."

Defense attorney Andrew Watters, seated beside Foppoli at the defense table, asked jurors to set aside presumptions. The encounters at issue, he contended, were consensual between adults. "Mr. Foppoli has yet to be charged with any crime five years later and counting," Watters said, per the Chronicle.

The absence of criminal charges after five years is central to the plaintiffs' framing. The Sonoma County District Attorney's office — now headed by Carla Rodriguez, who took office on January 2, 2023 — had previously recused itself from the criminal probe because one of the accusers, Esther Lemus, was a former deputy district attorney in that same office, ABC7 reported. The California Attorney General's Office then took over the investigation and ultimately declined to file charges, citing insufficient evidence, the Press Democrat reported.

That sequence — local recusal, state declination — left civil court as the sole remaining venue. The lawsuit, originally filed in April 2022, named Foppoli alongside his winery and two Active 20-30 entities as defendants. Before the case went to the jury, Christopher Creek Winery and the national Active 20-30 organization each reached pre-trial settlements with the seven plaintiffs; terms were not disclosed, according to the Press Democrat. Foppoli did not settle.

Attorneys also introduced a text message Foppoli sent to political operative Robert Stryk: "If we are using the (Donald) Trump playbook let's do it all of the way," the Press Democrat reported from the courtroom.

In remarks ahead of trial, Carrillo captured what the proceeding represents for her clients: "It's very significant that we are finally beginning trial. My clients are looking forward to this final step of hopefully seeing Dominic and the organization that enabled and ignored his known predatory behavior held accountable," she said, per the SF Chronicle.

Court records reviewed from the Sonoma County Superior Court docket show the case has navigated multiple pre-trial motions, including Foppoli's unsuccessful bid to move the venue and a denied motion for judgment on the pleadings against plaintiffs' Second Amended Complaint. The trial is the first Foppoli has faced on any allegations — the Press Democrat confirmed this characterization in its July 15 trial-opening report. Thirteen women in total have accused him of sexual assault or misconduct since the original Chronicle investigation broke in 2021.