Manhattan jury acquits ex-prosecutor of rape and assault charges
A former Boston prosecutor accused of rape and sexual abuse in Manhattan last year was acquitted of all charges by a jury on Friday.
The former prosecutor, Adam Foss, a leading advocate for criminal justice reform, was accused of raping a 25-year-old woman as she slept in a Midtown Manhattan hotel room in October 2017. Mr Foss, 43, said their meeting was consensual. .
Mr. Foss’s lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, said in a statement after the verdict that her client wanted to express his “sincere appreciation to the jury and judge for their diligent discernment of the truth in a complex case.”
“As Mr. Foss turns the page on this chapter, he looks forward to spending time with his wife and son,” she said, adding that he was “carefully evaluating his legal options to avoid the serious impact on who brought these false accusations on his father. to live.”
Mr. Foss was a prosecutor in the District Attorney’s Office in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He rose to national prominence after leaving office in 2016 and founding the nonprofit Prosecutor Impact, which trained prosecutors in practices he believed could reduce incarceration rates. He was a frequent speaker on mass incarceration and was one of them The most creative people at Fast Company And The Root’s 100 Most Influential Black Americans.
The lawsuit loss was significant for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, who has made prosecuting sex crimes a priority. A spokeswoman for Mr Bragg said prosecutors were disappointed by the verdict but respected the jury’s decision.
The verdict followed a two-week trial and several days of jury deliberations focused on what happened the night of Mr. Foss with the woman.
The two exchanged text messages and phone calls for about a month before meeting at the hotel, prosecutors said. While they were in the hotel room, prosecutors said, the woman repeatedly rejected Mr. Foss before she fell asleep and he attacked her.
During closing arguments this week, Ms. Chaudhry tried to undermine the prosecution’s story as not credible. Ms. Chaudhry detailed her client’s account of the night at the hotel to the jury, later citing text exchanges between the woman and a friend in which the woman described the night with Mr. Foss as “cute” and said he was “cute.” . Nice.”
The woman’s story about what happened changed after Mr Foss “ghosted” her, Ms Chaudhry said.
“You may think that Mr Foss should have been more considerate,” Ms Chaudhry told the jury, adding: “But that is very different from finding beyond reasonable doubt that he committed rape.”
Jonah E. Bromwich reporting contributed.