East Bay Times64%
Former interns say they felt ‘weird’ after drinking wine the night one says former Windsor mayor assaulted her 6%
By Colin Atagi7%
7/23/2026, 1:23:52 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Availability Heuristic, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Anecdotal as the most egregious example at 10.3% saturation with 86 hits. Analysis detected 891 faulty-reasoning hits from 835 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 22.4% and a BS Rank of 6% (20,564 of 21,886 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 94.00% of the article peer group.
Two former wine industry interns from France said Wednesday, July 22, they felt “weird” and became sick during a celebration at Christopher Creek Winery outside of Windsor in September 2019.
One said he suffered effects far worse than what he expected from traditional alcohol consumption.
The other said her mind became hazy that night.
One of the few things she remembers, she said, is being sexually assaulted by Dominic Foppoli, who was then Windsor’s mayor.
“What he did and the way he behaved was fully against my consent, and I did not agree to that,” the woman, then 21, identified only as Jane Doe 6, said through an interpreter while testifying in Sonoma County Superior Court.
Doe 6 is among the seven women suing Foppoli over sexual assault allegations going back to 2001.
Claims against Foppoli publicly surfaced in a spring 2021 news article that was followed by additional allegations from more than a dozen women, including a Windsor Town Council member.
Foppoli denied the allegations but was ultimately forced to resign as mayor.
Filed in April 2022, the plaintiffs’ case is now before a jury and three women have so far recounted assaults they say were committed by Foppoli.
Testimony entered its fifth day Wednesday with Doe 6 and the other intern, Simon Vaisse, recalling events from a harvest celebration at the Foppoli family-owned winery in September 2019.
Exactly how Doe 6 and Vaisse got sick that night was not made clear in court Wednesday.
Court records show plaintiffs believe a drugged drink may have been involved, and Vaisse testified Wednesday he drank from Doe 6’s glass at the harvest celebration.
Foppoli’s attorneys highlighted that Doe 6 doesn’t know whether any of the wine that night was from different wineries or who poured her drinks.
“You testified it was possibly you?”
Jennifer Eagleton, one of Foppoli’s defense attorneys, asked.
Doe 6 replied yes.
Nonetheless, Doe 6 and Vaisse remained resolute that Foppoli exhibited inappropriate behavior during the celebration, especially for a man in his political and professional position at the time.
Testifying from France via Zoom, Vaisse, 29, said he was in the middle of an internship at Christopher Creek and Foppoli made an unusual request early into the celebration.
“He said to you ‘Bring some p***y?
’” Gina Fortino Dickson, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, asked Vaisse Wednesday.
“Yes,” he replied, explaining through the interpreter that he believed it was an unusual comment coming from his boss and town mayor.
According to testimony, Doe 6 was interning at a different winery and said Vaisse invited her to the party at least one day in advance.
She drove herself and, once there, had one or two glasses of wine by the winery’s pool area before joining Foppoli, Vaisse and several others in a barrel room for wine tasting.
A short time later, Doe 6 and Vaisse said, they began feeling effects that the latter said surpassed normal intoxication.
“That was not a joyful feeling associated with alcohol.
It was a weird feeling,” Vaisse said.
He testified he tried to leave after he at some point found himself in a guestroom where Doe 6 was in a shower while Foppoli waited outside.
According to Doe 6, another series of events occurred prior to that.
She remembered getting into Foppoli’s Tesla after leaving the barrel room, she said, and expecting him to drive them around the winery property only to end up at a home she didn’t know.
The next thing she recalled, she said, was Foppoli pulling her against him, trying to kiss her and touching her inappropriately.
“I believe I was pushing him away, but I could not control my movement.
So all I could do was push him,” Doe 6 said.
The next thing she knew, she was back at the winery and wanted to shower, she said.
Foppoli tried to come in with a towel but another friend told him not to, she added.
Doe 6 and Vaisse both said they woke the next morning with ailments worse than a typical hangover.
Doe 6 said her friends took her to a hospital two days after the party after she was still exhibiting symptoms and had explained what she’d experienced that evening.
Suspecting she may have been drugged, Doe 6 was tested, she said, but results came back negative.
Doe 6 and Foppoli exchanged pleasantries on Instagram after the party, but she otherwise had no interest in talking to him again, she testified.
She tried to move on but, like several other plaintiffs, was later contacted by a journalist about allegations involving Foppoli.
On Wednesday, Doe 6 said news coverage showed her she wasn’t alone and she decided to come forward with her allegations.
Vaisse said he told his school about what happened and urged officials to be cautious about sending female interns to the winery.
You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com.
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