Tammy Murphy: ‘I was sexually assaulted’
Catherine CarreraMORRISTOWN — First Lady Tammy Murphy shared her #MeToo story with thousands who attended the Women’s March on New Jersey on Saturday, revealing that she had been sexually assaulted in college.
“The stories of the ‘Me Too’ movement have humbled the powerful and empowered the forgotten,” Murphy said in her speech at the event, following her husband, Gov. Phil Murphy.
“I will add my voice to this growing chorus,” she added before going into detail about her experience as a college sophomore.
Murphy is a 1987 graduate of the University of Virginia, where she earned a degree in communications and English.
“Three decades ago, as a college sophomore, I was sexually assaulted,” Murphy said. “Moving between two groups of friends I had a choice of taking a longer path that was well-lit or a shorter brick walkway that was slightly in the shadows.”
She said she chose the shorter way.
“As I walked along the brick path I suddenly stopped because the light was coming in and then it stopped. So, I turned my head to look and was pulled into the bushes,” Murphy said. “I was thrown on my back. I had a man on top of me – pulled my shirt up, pulled my skirt up. And I started screaming.”
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A party was going on a few feet away, which she could see through a window, she said.
“I could see the whole party in the window and I was screaming bloody murder, but no one could hear me,” Murphy said. “But the attacker got a little nervous. So, he started reaching around to see what he could find to shut me up.”
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The attacker found an apple, she said, which he “tried to put that in my mouth. I bit him as hard as I could.”
And she ran away and into a nearby fraternity house, where authorities were called, she said.
“My assailant never faced justice in my case,” Murphy said. “It wasn’t until a future point in time and a future crime that he finally went to jail.”
Murphy said that the “silver lining” over the last year has been the “thousands upon thousands of women who have found their voices.”
“Until today only a few have heard my story. Now you all know,” the state’s first lady said. “I tell this today not for me, but really for all of you. Surely among us is a woman who has been silent about her own story. I know the feeling of shame. I know the feeling of helplessness. I know the disappointment of justice denied. By speaking out we can find our strength and ensure our lives are not defined by our experience.”