Adam Foss, a former Boston prosecutor who became a criminal justice reform advocate and frequent speaker on mass incarceration, was charged by the Manhattan district attorney on Tuesday with rape and sexual abuse.
Prosecutors say Mr. Foss, 42, raped a woman while she slept in a New York hotel room in October 2017. The incident occurred after the victim, who was 25 at the time, had fallen asleep after she had repeatedly said no to his advances, the prosecutors said in a statement.
After Mr. Foss pleaded not guilty in State Supreme Court in Manhattan Tuesday, his lawyer, Robert C. Gottlieb, said that his client has known about the investigation for two years. Mr. Gottlieb said that the case was “very disturbing” because of a “historic and stereotypical racial dynamic involving a Black man and a white woman.”
Asked whether his client had a consensual sexual encounter with the woman on the night described by prosecutors, Mr. Gottlieb said: “Everything was consensual with her.”
Mr. Foss, who remains free on supervised release, became nationally known after leaving the prosecutor’s office in Suffolk County, Mass., in 2016. That year, he launched the nonprofit organization Prosecutor Impact, which trained prosecutors in practices that he believed would result in lowered incarceration rates. He spoke throughout the country and landed on lists like Fast Company’s most creative people and The Root’s 100 most influential Black Americans.
One of his Ted Talks racked up nearly three million views.
However, allegations of misconduct against Mr. Foss are not new.
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As reported by WBUR in Boston last year, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office had investigated Mr. Foss, who worked in the juvenile division from 2008 to 2016, after accusations about his behavior surfaced online.
Goodwin Procter, an independent law firm hired by Rachael Rollins, then the Suffolk County district attorney, found that although Mr. Foss had “engaged in concerning conduct with at least two adult female office interns and students,” he had not broken laws or violated office policies.