Robet F. Kennedy Jr., 70, has been charged with sexual assault by a woman who worked as a babysitter for his children in 1998 when she was 23 years old and fresh out of college. RadarOnline.com has learned.
Eliza Cooneynow 48, opened up about her experiences in a surprising new exposé published by Vanity fair on Tuesday morning, the same exposé that raised animal cruelty concerns by unearthing a photo of the presidential candidate posing with the roasted remains of a dog.
In the fall of 1998, Cooney moved into the Mount Kisco, New York, home that Kennedy shared with his then-wife. Mary Richardson to care for their children and help during the week at Kennedy’s environmental law clinic at Pace University. One evening, during a meeting in the kitchen with Kennedy and a volunteer at his Riverkeeper nonprofit Murray Fishershe said she felt Kennedy touch her leg.
“From everything everyone says about the Kennedys and their babysitters, they worried me,” Cooney wrote in a diary entry dated November 7, 1998. “Like I gotta be careful, be careful. And the other night in the kitchen with Murray, I I could have sworn he was touching my leg and hand. It was like he thought I was someone else or wasn’t paying attention. It was like he was busy with something or really tired or missing Mary or testing me.”
“In the back of my mind I was hoping it wasn’t what it really was,” Cooney said.
Several weeks later, Cooney claimed she found Kennedy in her bedroom. Her diary lay open next to her bed, and Kennedy, then 45, asked her to rub lotion on his back.
“I thought, ‘Isn’t Mary home? Isn’t she doing this for you?'” she recalled, but reluctantly agreed and quickly did it. “It was completely inappropriate,” she said.
After that incident, she said she stopped recording her experiences with Kennedy in her diary because she feared he would read it.
Months later, Cooney said she was looking through the kitchen pantry before lunch, still wearing a sports bra and leggings after a yoga class, when Kennedy walked up behind her, blocked her from the room and began groping her.
Cooney alleged that Kennedy placed his hands on her hips and ran them along her ribcage and breasts. “My back was to the utility room door and he came after me,” she said. “I was frozen. Shocked.”
According to Cooney, Kennedy was interrupted when a male worker entered the kitchen and announced his presence by saying something like, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” or “Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want your wife to do.” know about.”
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Cooney continued to work for Kennedy for a few more months, but said the experience damaged her confidence and kept her from doing environmental work. At the end of her diary, Cooney included a list of things she “had to leave behind in 1999,” with “bad men” at the top.
She didn’t tell anyone what happened until the #MeToo movement started in 2017 and she decided to tell her mother: Holly Cooney. ‘Was I shocked? Naturally. Was I surprised? Not really,” Holly said. “And not so much because of the Kennedy name, but because she knew what the culture was, especially in the world of privilege. I remember when we first talked about it, she was concerned about how publicly she felt she was ready.”
Although Cooney consulted with an attorney last year, Kennedy ultimately decided not to file a civil suit against Kennedy. She said she only felt compelled to speak out publicly now because of his presidential campaign.