This article has been corrected to remove Lisa Molina Heaps’ quote”absolutely fishy,” as referring to the allegation. Heaps was referring to timing, not the allegation itself.
A friend who graduated high school the same year as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says she could not picture him in the situation described by the woman who accuses him of sexually assaulting her when they were teens.
“It’s interesting, even in those small social circles in Washington, D.C., private boys and girls schools, there were certain people who had reputations and people that had crazy reputations, people that had reputations for being partiers, things like that. He did not,” Heaps, 53, said Wednesday of Kavanaugh in a phone interview.
Heaps said she graduated from the all-girls Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in 1983, the same year Kavanaugh graduated from the all-boys Georgetown Preparatory School.
“He had a reputation of being a responsible, kind, respectful person, the kind of person you would probably want to date,” Heaps said.
Heaps is one of 65 women who knew Kavanaugh when he attended Georgetown Prep and signed a letter published Sept. 14 that vouches for the character of the Supreme Court nominee.
“We all partied a little bit,” Heaps told The Daily Signal.
Another signer of the letter, Missy Carr, said in an interview Tuesday with The Daily Signal that she knew Kavanaugh at the time, and could not imagine him in “the scenario that is being described … even under the influence of alcohol.”
Christine Blasey Ford, Kavanaugh’s accuser, now a 51-year-old research psychologist in Northern California, told The Washington Post that Kavanaugh held her down, groped her, and tried to remove her clothes in a bedroom during a summer party in the early 1980s in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Ford said Mark Judge, a classmate of Kavanaugh’s, was present during the alleged assault at a house party attended by a small group of teens, and that both Judge and Kavanaugh were drunk at the time.
Ford reportedly wrote a confidential letter in July describing the incident and sent it via Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Calif., to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The last-minute accusation postponed the committee’s scheduled vote Thursday on Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, which then would go to the Senate floor.
Ford revealed her identity for the article published Sunday by The Washington Post.
Kavanaugh, 53, has twice issued absolute denials of ever doing such a thing, the second time Monday after Ford’s name came out.
Judge also has said the incident didn’t happen.
Ford is calling for an FBI investigation of her accusation before appearing before the Judiciary Committee, despite its invitation to her to testify.
Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge since 2006, was expected to testify Monday before the committee.
“It is not right that at the 11th hour, this is brought forward. It is absolutely a last-ditch effort by people who don’t want him nominated to derail his nomination,” Heaps said. “Absolutely, it’s obvious to me. And they can say all that they want that it wasn’t, but it’s clear to most people.”
Speaking of Ford’s accusation, Feinstein told reporters Wednesday that she “can’t say everything is truthful, I don’t know.”
Heaps said she signed the letter with her 64 peers who knew Kavanaugh when he attended Georgetown Prep because she believes in his character. She said:
What made me sign it is, I have been following the proceedings because, well, I follow this stuff anyway, but more so because I knew Judge Kavanaugh, Brett, in high school. And I was sad to see how he was being treated, even before this [accusation] came out. The process has become so politicized, truly it saddens me that people get treated the way that they get treated.
When this accusation came out, we rallied around him because we felt that this was not something that could be true of this person, of Brett. It was out of character.
She never knew Ford, Heaps said, but her opinion of Kavanaugh has not changed.
“Everyone wants to know, ‘Do you still support him … even after Dr. Ford reveals her name?’ and the answer is yes,” Heaps said.
