McSally alleges sexual abuse as teen

U.S. Rep. Martha McSally told the

Wall Street Journal during a recent interview that she was sexually abused as a teen by her high-school track coach.

McSally, a Tucson Republican who is running in Arizona’s GOP primary to replace outgoing U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, RAriz., said in a story published Monday that the alleged sexual abuse happened when she was a senior in high school.

Later Monday, McSally’s campaign released a statement from McSally.

“During the course of a recent interview about my path as an endurance athlete and completing the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, I shared some dark experiences from my past,” McSally said in the statement. “These experiences don’t define me, but only deepened and strengthened my resolve to not be powerless, and dedicate my life to fight for others, especially girls, women and the vulnerable.”

McSally, now 52, told the Wall Street

Journal that the experience came following the death of her father. To help her cope with the grief, she turned to running and other exercise.

The article said that the coach, who

was 20 years older than her, coerced her into sex. Although she was uncomfortable, she said the coach kept her from talking about it with others by manipulating her mentally.

“Even though he didn’t physically force me, it certainly was an emotional manipulation,” McSally was quoted in the story as saying.

The story said she tried to avoid pregnancy by exercising so much that she would not have a regular menstrual cycle.

“I was freaking out that he would get me pregnant,” she told the Wall Street Journal.

McSally attended St. Academy-Bay View, a Catholic school in Rhode Island. Representatives from the school’s alumni office and main office did not immediately respond to The Republic’s calls for comment.

The Journal said that the school identified the track coach at the time of the alleged abuse as Jack Dwyer.

The Journal states that Dwyer said he coached McSally and denied the allegations.

“I believe she’s nuts,” he is quoted as saying. “That girl is the most scheming woman I’ve ever met.”

Dwyer said that McSally went to his home “a few times, uninvited, with and without other people.” He said they did not have sex.

McSally told the Journal that she told two adult women about the alleged abuse. One of them reported it to the school but did not name McSally, the story states.

One of those women told the Journal that the school immediately fired Dwyer.

Dwyer disputed the woman’s account of the report, saying he resigned from the job.

McSally, the first female pilot to fight in combat, told the Journal that she left Rhode Island and joined the Air Force Academy to get away from the coach.

“I needed to geographically get to another place,” she said.

She did not pursue legal remedies. In 2014, as a congressional contender, McSally disclosed that she had been stalked, saying she understood what it was like to “worry constantly about when and where your stalker will appear next and what he’ll do.”

It is unclear to whom she was referring.

At the time, she said in a written statement that there were “threats” made against her, “and wasn’t even safe in my own home or my car when my stalker broke in and held me in a hostage-like situation.”

McSally told the Journal that when she was running for Congress, she got a Facebook friend request from Dwyer.

“I left a pretty scathing message, but I also told him that I forgave him in the same message,” she is quoted in the

Journal story as saying. “Not because he deserved it . ... Forgiveness is about freeing yourself — not allowing any sort of deep anger to have power over you.”