CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - The dramatic, highly emotional and riveting testimony from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is having an impact around the country, including at the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center in Cambridge.
Counselors at the crisis center say there was a spike in callers reporting sexual assaults Thursday as Ford described the details of what she says was a sexual attack by Kavanaugh on a summer evening three decades ago.
“Most people calling in wanted support,” rape crisis counselor Sharon Imperato said. “They want to know that they have a place to go and talk.”
Asked for the most vivid memory from that night, Ford did not name a physical violation. Rather, it was a specific sound she heard Kavanaugh and the other boy she says was in the room, Mark Judge.
“Laughter — the uproarious laughter between the two,” a shaken Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee at Thursday’s extraordinary hearing. “They were laughing with each other. … I was underneath one of them while the two laughed.”
Imperato says many survivors felt compelled to call the hotline after seeing Ford’s powerful story, while others were sickened by Kavanaugh’s testimony.
“For survivors, the worst fear they have is that any time they tell anyone, they’re going to completely deny it,” she said. “That they’re not going to be believed.”
In a defiant and emotional bid to rescue his nomination, Kavanaugh denied the allegations and angrily told Congress that Democrats were engaged in “a calculated and orchestrated political hit.”
Many others who called in to the crisis center said they were harassed at work by colleagues who disagree with their view of the Ford-Kavanaugh situation, according to counselors.
Those who want to talk with a counselor or want more information on the services available at the crisis center can call 800-841-8371.
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