'He became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk': Brett Kavanaugh's former roommate sides with accuser who claims he exposed himself at college party

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Brett Kavanaugh.

• James Roche, a man who says he was Brett Kavanaugh's when the two were in college at Yale, said he remembered Kavanaugh "frequently drinking excessively and becoming incoherently drunk."
• Roche said that he was inclined to believe the sexual misconduct allegations a second accuser, Debbie Ramirez, leveled against Kavanaugh.
• Ramirez was another of Kavanaugh's classmates at Yale. Her alleged encounter with Kavanaugh, during which she said Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party, was published by The New Yorker on Sunday.
• Roche described Kavanaugh as a "normally reserved" person, but a "notably heavy drinker, even by the standards at the time, and that he became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk."

A man who says he was Judge Brett Kavanaugh's college roommate when the two were students at Yale said he remembered Kavanaugh as "frequently drinking excessively and becoming incoherently drunk," in a statement released on Monday.

James Roche said he was inclined to believe the sexual misconduct allegations made by Debbie Ramirez, a fellow classmate at Yale University, who claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party.

Roche, who lived in a two-bedroom unit with Kavanaugh during their freshman year, described Ramirez as "being exceptionally honest, with a trusting manner," and said he believed Kavanaugh may have been "capable" of behaving in the alleged manner.

Ramirez claimed that Kavanaugh exposed himself during a dorm party in his freshman year from 1983-84, according to a New Yorker report published on Sunday. Kavanaugh is alleged to have thrust his exposed penis in front of Ramirez's face as onlookers watched, investigative journalists Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer wrote.

"I was embarrassed and ashamed and humiliated," Ramirez said to The New Yorker. "Brett was laughing."

Roche claims that although he did not witness the alleged incident, he was inclined to agree with Ramirez based on his experience with the eventual Supreme Court nominee.

"Based on my time with Debbie, I believe her to be unusually honest and straightforward and I cannot imagine her making this up," Roche said his statement Monday night. "Based on my time with Brett, I believe that he and his social circle were capable of the actions that Debbie described."

Roche, who runs a software company in San Francisco, made similar comments in The New Yorker's Sunday report and with a local Bay Area news station on Monday.

Roche, who said he was "close friends" with Ramirez and did not interact with Kavanaugh "beyond the first few days of freshman year," described Kavanaugh as a "normally reserved" person, but a "notably heavy drinker, even by the standards at the time, and that he became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk."

"We talked at night as freshman roommates do and I would see him as he returned from nights out with his friends," Roche said.

Kavanaugh has emphatically denied Ramirez's claim, calling it a "smear, plain and simple." He also denies Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that he fondled her at a party when the two were in high school.

Ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist and professor who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a house party in the 1980s, said he was "stumbling drunk" when he sexually assaulted her.

"Yes, there were parties and the drinking age was 18," Kavanaugh said during an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Monday night. "And yes, the seniors were legal and had beer there. And yes, people might have had too many beers on occasion. And people generally, in high school, I think all of us have probably done things. We look back on in high school and regret or cringe a bit."

"But that's not what we're talking about," Kavanaugh added. "We're talking about an allegation of sexual assault. I've never sexually assaulted anyone."

Kavanaugh and Ford are scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.