Ex-Prosecutor Accused Of Raping Woman In Midtown Hotel, DA Says

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A former prosecutor and prominent criminal justice reform advocate has been accused of raping a woman while she slept in a Manhattan hotel, District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Tuesday.

Adam Foss, a former assistant district attorney in Boston and founder of the group Prosecutor Impact, was indicted Tuesday on charges of first-degree rape and sexual abuse, Bragg said.

“I thank this brave survivor, who had the courage to come forward and share her story,” said Bragg.

The charges stem from an October 2017 incident in which Foss met a 25-year-old woman at a Midtown hotel after the two had exchanged texts and calls for about a month, according to Manhattan prosecutors.

After the woman repeatedly declined Foss's advances, the two fell asleep in the hotel room and Foss raped the woman as she slept, prosecutors allege.

Robert Gottlieb, an attorney for Foss, strongly defended his client when reached for comment.

"This is a very disturbing case, considering the glaring racial dynamics that will become very apparent," Gottlieb told Patch, calling the charges "stereotypical attacks on a Black man."

Gottlieb said he plans to present evidence showing that Foss's accuser had continued contact with him after the alleged assault.

Allegations of misconduct against Foss surfaced in 2020, when a writer and singer published a blog post accusing Foss of raping her after the two met at a conference. (Patch is not publishing her name in accordance with our policy of printing accuser's names only with direct permission.)

Prosecutors did not say whether this was the incident for which Foss is now facing charges.

Following the 2020 allegations, Rachael Rollins, then the D.A. of Suffolk County — which includes Boston — opened an investigation into Foss's behavior while he worked in the office. It ultimately concluded that Foss had shown "troubling" behavior with young interns, but did not rise to a criminal level, outlets reported last spring.

Foss, now a Los Angeles resident, founded the nonprofit Prosecutor Impact in 2016 with the stated mission of "improving community safety in the United States through a better understanding of the most important actor in the criminal justice system: the criminal prosecutor."

He first rose to the public eye via a 2016 TED Talk about criminal justice reform that has been viewed more than 2 million times.