A woman who has accused former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., of drugging and raping her in a West Hollywood hotel room addressed the public at a press conference on Tuesday and said she plans to file a police report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Lonna Drewes, who described Swalwell as a former friend, is the latest woman to come forward with allegations of sexual assault against the former representative, who resigned from Congress on Tuesday afternoon.
Drewes said that after one of three social occasions she shared with Swalwell, he told her he needed to retrieve paperwork from his hotel room. It was there, she alleged, that he sexually assaulted her.
“I believe he drugged my drink,” Drewes said. “I only had one glass of wine.” She said she was incapacitated by the time she arrived at his hotel room.
“He raped me and he choked me, and while he was choking me, I lost consciousness,” Drewes said. “I thought I died. I did not consent to any sexual activity.”
In the statement in which he announced his resignation, Swalwell apologized to his family, staff and constituents for past mistakes but denied any wrongdoing in response to earlier allegations from other women.
Drewes said she did not undergo a rape kit at the time of the incident, but said she disclosed the assault to people close to her, recorded the events in a personal calendar and had the assault and its psychological impact documented in subsequent therapy sessions at a center in Connecticut specializing in treating survivors of sexual assault.
She said she did not feel comfortable coming forward sooner because of Swalwell’s “political power, his background as an attorney,” his family’s ties to law enforcement — his father was a police officer — and her own aspirations to run for city council.
“It had a profound impact on my mental health. I self-medicated in an unhealthy way,” she said. “I did not want to live anymore. I cried all the time for years.”
Drewes said that she was in a relationship at the time of the alleged assault and that Swalwell and his wife were expecting a child. She said she had never been unfaithful to her partner.
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“I would never have engaged in a consensual sexual encounter with Eric Swalwell,” she said. “That reality further underscores the nonconsensual nature of what occurred.”
At Tuesday’s press conference, Drewes’ attorney, Lisa Bloom, addressed Swalwell directly. “Your recent statement that you are just not perfect, you are not a saint, is just blather and spin,” Bloom said. “Stop it. Your statement that this is all just a matter between you and your wife is laughable if not for the fact that it is a slap in the face to the victims.”
“Own your behavior,” Bloom added. She said three additional women have recently contacted her with allegations against Swalwell.
A rare effort to expel Swalwell from Congress was already underway before his resignation announcement, following reporting that he had also allegedly sexually assaulted a former aide on two separate occasions when she was too intoxicated to consent. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Saturday it had opened an investigation into those allegations.
Many of Swalwell’s longtime allies have denounced him in light of these new accusations, and that cascade of criticism forced Swalwell to end his gubernatorial campaign.
On the same day Swalwell announced his resignation, Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, also announced he would leave Congress. Gonzales recently acknowledged an affair with a former staffer who later died by suicide. Both members were under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. Its investigatory jurisdiction expires once their resignations from Congress are official.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.