Some senators call for vote delay; Woman described as ‘professional truth teller’

PALO ALTO >> With her decision to publicly accuse Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, a Palo Alto professor was thrust into the center of the battle over the future of the Supreme Court on Sunday, with Democratic senators and at least one Republican saying they wanted to hear her story before they vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Friends and colleagues described Christine Blasey Ford, a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University who also teaches at Stanford, as a talented statistician, a surfer and a “professional truth teller.”

After rumors swirled about her allegation for days, Ford revealed

her identity and told her story in an interview with The Washington Post. She said Kavanaugh pushed her down on a bed, groped her and attempted to assault her at a high school party more than 30 years ago, putting his hand over her mouth as she screamed. Kavanaugh strongly denied that the incident took place.

Ford, 51, lives in Palo Alto with her husband Russell and two sons. She grew up in Maryland and went to an all-girls school just a few miles from Kavanaugh’s allboys prep school.

Jim Gensheimer, a friend of Ford’s through her kids, said she first told him about her allegations against Kavanaugh when the judge was nominated in July. She was deeply conflicted about coming forward, he said, worrying if it would make a difference and whether people would believe her.

“She’s been trying to forget about this all of her life, basically,” said Gensheimer, a freelance photographer who previously worked for the Bay Area News Group. “But she felt like somebody should know what this person was like and what he’s done before.”

The decades-old incident has had such a strong impact on Ford that even now she can’t live in a house that doesn’t have a second exit, out of a fear of being trapped, Gensheimer said she told him.

Colleagues of Ford’s consider her a devoted researcher and teacher. Helena Chmura Kraemer, a professor emeritus at Stanford who co-wrote a book and several articles with Ford, said in an interview she was a “joy to work with.”

Ford specializes in designing statistical models for research projects in order to make sure they come to accurate conclusions, Kraemer said. She’s cowritten dozens of papers on topics ranging from ADHD in children to depression in young adults to posttraumatic stress disorder caused by the 9/11 attacks.

“We’re the people who look at the data and say, ‘that’s not what the data is saying,’ ” said Kraemer, who’s known Ford for about 20 years. “In some ways, she’s a professional truth teller.”

Ford first made her accusation in a letter to her congresswoman, Rep. Anna Eshoo, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the lead Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, earlier this summer. After news about the letter leaked out in the media and Capitol Hill circles last week, Ford, who had originally asked that her account be kept confidential, decided to go public to share her story in her own words, she told the Post.

California Democrats quickly rallied to Ford’s defense Sunday, calling her allegations credible and serious.

“I’m proud of my constituent for the courage she has displayed to come forward to tell her full story to the American people,” Eshoo said in a statement. “In weighing her privacy and the consequences to herself and her family, she has demonstrated her willingness to risk these factors to present the truth.”

“For any woman, sharing an experience involving sexual assault—particularly when it involves a politically connected man with influence, authority and power—is extraordinarily difficult,” Feinstein said in a statement. “From the outset, I have believed these allegations were extremely serious and bear heavily on Judge Kavanaugh’s character. However, as we have seen over the past few days, they also come at a price for the victim. I hope the attacks and shaming of her will stop and this will be treated with the seriousness it deserves.”

Other Democrats, including Sen. Kamala Harris, called for Kavanaugh’s confirmation process to be postponed in light of the new information.

One Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, told the Washington Post that he didn’t think the committee should vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination as scheduled on Thursday until the members “hear more” from Ford.

But Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said in a statement Sunday that the timing of Ford’s story coming out “raises a lot of questions about Democrats’ tactics and motives.” He noted that Kavanaugh had previously been vetted by the FBI, which is not investigating the allegation.

Several friends and colleagues said Ford never seemed especially political. A registered Democrat who’s made several small donations to candidates from the party, she marched in last year’s March for Science, wearing a cap knit to look like a brain.

“It’s a science party,” she told the Bay Area News Group before the event, saying that “getting introverted people to the march” was crucial.

Ford, who previously taught at Pepperdine University, has received degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Pepperdine University, the University of Southern California and Stanford, according to an archived version of her Linkedin page.

In addition to her research, she also advises doctoral students at Palo Alto University and Stanford. Barr Taylor, another Stanford emeritus professor who’s worked with Ford on advising student dissertations over almost a decade, said she has “extremely high integrity.”

“She really helps students look at complex data in a way that’s very useful,” Taylor said.

On social media, many people sent out messages declaring “I believe Christine Blasey Ford” — while others questioned her account.

At Ford’s Eichler-style home in Palo Alto, which has a basketball hoop out front, reporters from New York to San Francisco waited outside Sunday afternoon. A friend stopped by to pick up the family dog.

“They’re not coming home tonight,” said the man, who pulled up in a Volvo SUV and declined to give his name, calling her “a great person.”

Jacquie Martell, a pharmaceutical executive in Santa Clara and a former coworker of Ford’s, described her as a warm friend and a big sports fan who regularly goes surfing in Santa Cruz.

“I remember the Anita Hill hearings and what happened to women who accused Bill Cosby and all these other guys,” Martell said. “I can see it already on Twitter that her reputation is being dragged through the mud — she’s a good person who doesn’t deserve that.”