WASHINGTON D.C. – A woman from Boulder is the second person to come forward to accuse Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
According to NBC, Deborah Ramirez, accused Kavanaugh of pulling down his pants and exposing himself to her while the pair were classmates at Yale in the 1980s.
The new allegation comes days before the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to interview the SCOTUS nominee about a previous sexual misconduct allegation.
The New Yorker interviewed Ramirez. The 53-year old woman says she had been drinking and knew that wasn’t what she wanted. She also told the magazine she remembered someone shouting the nominee’s full name and saying he’d put his penis in her face.
According to NBC News, Ramirez is married and living in Boulder as a volunteer and board member at a nonprofit group, Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, which advocates for victims of domestic violence.
Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet’s office confirmed they helped Ramirez get in touch with Stan Garnett, the former Boulder District Attorney so she could move forward taking the allegation public.
“Judiciary staff reached out to our office and asked for a connection to someone who might be helpful should Deborah Ramirez decide to come forward with an allegation related to that made by Dr. Ford,” said a statement from spokesperson Laurie Cipriano. “We reached out to Stan Garnett who then met with Ramirez to work through how to analyze and present her allegations.”
The ‘Dr. Ford’ in that statement refers to the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct – Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. She said he’d forced himself on top of her at a party in the ’80s while the nominee was in high school. Kavanaugh has denied the incident. Ford said she will testify this week in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Not long after the New Yorker’s story was published, the White House released a pair of statements denying the claims, one from Kavanaugh himself.
“This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen,” said Kavanaugh. “The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said so. This is a smear, plain and simple. I look forward to testifying on Thursday about the truth, and defending my good name — and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building — against these last-minute allegations.”
