In her Trenton testimony this morning before the Select Oversight Committee, Katie Brennan said her cries for help went repeatedly unanswered at all levels of government after Al Alvarez sexually assaulted her. Despite her multiple efforts to bring to attention what she said was Alvarez’s criminal behavior, no one in the Murphy campaign apparatus responded.

Once in office, the Murphy Administration supplied jobs to both Alvarez and Brennan, the former as chief of staff to the Housing Authority and the latter as chief of staff to the Schools Development Authority.

“I wanted justice and I wanted to stop Al Alvarez from assaulting again,” said Brennan.  “Why did I have to tell my story to the Wall Street Journal? No survivor should have to tell her story to the newspaper to be heard.”

Brennan outlined her story, starting on April 9th, 2017, in the middle of a gubernatorial campaign, when she said fellow Murphy Campaign ally Alvarez attacked her. Following the assault, Brennan said she called her husband, who was overseas, then called her friend Justin Braz, who would go on to serve as deputy chief of staff in the Murphy Administration.

Brennan described Braz as a professional colleague and personal friend. 

She wanted to tell him what happened, she said, because she knew “if I were to pursue my career in housing and government, I would inevitably cross paths with [Alvarez].”

She reported the alleged attack to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office.

On April 17th, she said she wrote a letter to Alvarez to tell him that what he did was sexual assault and thereafter in the ensuing months attempted to contact and contacted key people in the Murphy circle to notify them of what she said was Alvarez’s rape of her.

No one took any action, and the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office never charged her assailant, she said. Her case is now in the hands of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Brennan said she was optimistic the administration would help her, but it never did, despite her reaching out to counsel Matt Platkin and chief of staff Pete Cammarano, and an email to the Governor himself, which did not contain any details about her case but contained a tone of urgency.