The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Town divided over accusations
In Shelton, ex-neighbors have mixed feelings on Ramirez’s allegations
There was a time when Shelton had a bustling downtown.
Workers leaving B. F. Goodrich, which later became Sponge Rubber, would buy their morning paper and pack of cigarettes at Kyle’s Corner. Dinner came from Fulton Market or A&P, where the Subway sandwich shop and Howe Avenue Deli are now.
Bridgeport Avenue, which served as the old Route 8, offered little more than two car dealerships, the Wiffle Ball Company and Hazel’s hotdog stand.
Deborah Ramirez grew up in that Shelton of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, before moving on to Yale University and out into the world.
Maybe most people in Shelton don’t remember her. Many were surprised Wednesday to find out that their former neighbor was the second accuser to come forward against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“She didn’t attend public schools, so she probably flew under the radar,” said Rick Schulz, who did attend Shelton schools and has spent years as the Planning and Zoning administrator.
Ramirez, who now lives in Colorado, apparently attended St. Lawrence School in the 1970s, according to some residents. Instead of Shelton High School, she attended St. Joseph in Trumbull.
“She obviously was very bright,” said William J. Fitzgerald, president of St. Joseph High, as he flipped through the school’s 1983 Yearbook.
Fitzgerald was not at St. Joseph while Ramirez was there, but he said he spoke about her with Monsignor Richard J. Shea, who was president of the school in the early 1980s.
“We’re between Westport and
Bridgeport, so there’s a lot of economic diversity here, and there was then, too,” Fitzgerald said. “She was in the top five students in her class; and in her class, I think, we had three kids who got into Yale that year.”
Words of support
Fitzgerald said he’s “not surprised” she would come forward to tell her story about an encounter with Kavanaugh at Yale.
Ramirez has accused Kavanaugh of exposing his genitals and causing her to involuntarily touch them. Kavanaugh has denied the accusation, and President Donald Trump has stood with him.
At St. Joseph, Ramirez participated in a host of extracurricular activities and earned spots on the National Honor Society and the Spanish National Honor Society. “Everyone said that she was quiet, very bright and very affable,” Fitzgerald said.
James Roche, a 1983 Wilton High School graduate and Kavanaugh’s freshman roommate at Yale, this week expressed his support for and belief in Ramirez.
“I became close friends with Debbie Ramirez shortly after we both arrived at Yale,” Roche, who is now the CEO of a California software company, said in a statement. “She stood out as being exceptionally honest, with a trusting manner. As we got to know one another, I discovered that Debbie was very worried about fitting in.
“She felt that everyone at Yale was very rich, very smart and very sophisticated and that as a Puerto Rican woman from a less privileged background, she was an outsider,” Roche said. “Her response was to try hard to make friends and get along. Based on my time with Debbie, I believe her to be unusually honest and straightforward and I cannot imagine her making this up.”
Roche also said: “Based on my time with Brett, I believe that he and his social circle were capable of the actions that Debbie described.”
Calls for action
Ramirez was the second woman to come forward to question Kavanaugh’s behavior while in high school and college, painting an image of a young man who treated women with little respect and who frequently drank to excess. A third accuser emerged Wednesday.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., asked the FBI to look into Kavanaugh’s past. “These allegations are absolutely breathtaking — a gut punch,” the senator said. “Deborah Ramirez has made some serious allegations that corroborate what’s emerging as Mr. Kavanaugh’s vile pattern of predatory attacks.”
In Shelton on Wednesday, a foursome of women playing cards at the Senior Center said they supported Ramirez’s decision to come forward. They said they were afraid that giving their names might result in threats.
Others were less supportive of Ramirez.
“We don’t know it’s true,” said Susan Zelanakas, of North Haven, participating in an art class at the Community Center. “What happened about being innocent until proven guilty?”
Others, like John Anglace, president of the Board of Aldermen, wondered why her allegations were never reported to police or Yale officials. “There’s no corroboration; there’s no documentation,” Anglace said.
“I think its all a put up,” said Clifford Albright, who lives not far from Ramirez’s former home but did not know her. “The Democrats went out looking for people. They don’t want the Supreme Court balance to swing.”
Albright said he’ll be watching the hearings and hopes Kavanaugh “wins a Supreme Court seat.”
“Tell me, how good is your memory when your drunk and the incident took place 30-40 years ago?” added Bill McCart, a longtime Shelton resident, as he left the Community Center. “I think he gets appointed.”
Then there’s Mayor Mark Lauretti, who was once involved in a grand jury probe of corruption in Shelton. He was never charged with any crimes. “People who enter public life get accused of things; it happened to me,” Lauretti said Wednesday. “Sometimes politics plays a role in these things. There’s a lot of gamesmanship going on. And it’s anybody’s guess this time as to what will happen.”