Calls to hotline for sex assault victims spike after Kavanaugh hearings

As divisive as the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh were, advocates for sexual assault victims say there may be some good that comes out of it.

Kavanaugh was accused of sexually assaulting a girl at a high school party more than 30 years ago. But after an FBI investigation of the allegation, the Senate voted 51-49 in support of Kavanaugh, with many Republican senators saying the assault allegation wasn't substantiated and was merely an attempt to scuttle his nomination.

The hearings spurned a national conversation about the issue of sex assault, how cases are reported and how victims are supported.

Tasha Sullivan, senior director at InterAct, which provides services for domestic violence and sex assault victims, said sex assault calls to the group's hotline have jumped 19 percent since the Kavanaugh hearings began.

"It's much more common for victims not to report than report," Sullivan said. "They say only about 30 percent get reported to the police, and there's a variety of reasons for that."

Deborah Goldstein kept quiet about her assault for 50 years.

She was a 19-year-old student in 1968 when someone pulled her from a Detroit alley into a car in a garage at knifepoint and raped her.

WRAL News typically doesn't identify victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly on their own.

Goldstein said she told friends but not her parents or police because she felt like nothing would come of reporting it.

"This man was never going to be caught. They weren't going to go after him," she said.

Now, Goldstein is sharing her story to help give other women the confidence to do the same. The Kavanaugh hearings triggered the need to come forward, she said.

"When it first came up and I knew the hearings were going to be on, I thought, 'I don't need to talk about my story.' I have a story. It’s a long time ago. I don’t need to talk about it," she said.

But her position changed as the hearings unfolded.

"I was watching the hearings, and I was crying," she said. "So, I think there was something more. It touched me in a way that I hadn't expected.

"It's not just my story. It's the story of, I think, every woman," she added.

Goldstein, who was a preschool teacher at the Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh for 26 years, said she now believes sex assault victims should come forward.

"We're talking about it now," she said. "You can't address a problem and you can't change anything if you're not talking about it."

Sullivan said the national dialogue should give more victims the courage to come forward.

"What can we do to support our friends and loved ones who this has possibly happened to, because this most likely happened to someone you know and love?" she said.

InterAct's hotline is at 919-828-7740 or toll-free at 866-291-0855.