Katie Brennan calls release of video an attempt to discredit her

TRENTON — Katie Brennan accused Al Alvarez and his legal team of leaving out important facts of their respective interviews with detectives investigating her rape allegation.

Alvarez recently released video and documents to Politico New Jersey that highlighted the fact that Hudson County investigators could not match DNA samples taken from Brennan with Alvarez. The news about the videos was published before Alvarez testified Tuesday before a legislative panel probing the Murphy administration's hiring practices.

The website said it received 30 hours of video that it has not completely reviewed.

In a videotaped interview from October of 2017 posted to the site Weiner tells Brennan: "I’m sure as you know it’s very hard in he-said, she-said cases. That’s why we look for DNA. We’re not suggesting this didn’t happen. I’m not suggesting that we don’t believe you. They’re just very difficult to prosecute.”

Alvarez has never denied having sexual contact with Brennan. According to an NJ.com account of the videos, he told prosecutors he "felt bad" because "she clearly felt bad" about having a sexual encounter with him despite being married. He said she "never said stop until the very end" and he described their encounter as "all just consensual touching and feeling but, again, all over the clothes."

In a statement released through her spokesperson, Brennan accused Alvarez of  “deliberate omission and misrepresentation of pertinent facts and gross misleading of the public to paint himself as innocent and me as untruthful is abhorrent”

Brennan accused his legal team of having information and documents that her attorneys do not yet have.

"This is a disgraceful imbalance, and it must be rectified if there is any hope of ensuring me justice. I look forward to ensuring the full truth is laid bare as we continue that pursuit of justice in this case,” she said in her statement.

“Finally, if, as we learned today, the accused can be told of the prosecutor’s decision more than month before the survivor, we have much work to do in reforming the criminal justice system for sexual assault survivors.”

The statement was billed as a "statement from Katie Brennan in response to Al Alvarez’s testimony before the Senate Select Oversight Committee in Trenton on Tuesday" although the rape allegation was not raised during his three hours of testimony as both sides abided by an agreement not to raise the matter.

It was raised by Alvarez in his opening statement when he stood by his earlier assertion that his sexual contact with the married Brennan was consensual.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

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