Tara Reade's Former Neighbor Says She Knew About Alleged Biden Sexual Assault in the Mid-'90s

A former neighbor of Tara Reade—the former Joe Biden aide who has accused the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of sexual assault—has come forward to say that Reade spoke of the assault to her back in the mid-1990s when they lived in the same apartment complex.

Lynda LaCasse says she became friends with Reade in 1995 when their young daughters played together in the pool of their Morro Bay, California, apartment complex. LaCasse told Business Insider that during a conversation about violence, Reade tearfully revealed that then-Senator Biden had put his hand up her skirt, which mirrors the account Reade gave in a podcast interview with Katie Halper last month:

“We were talking about violent stories,” LaCasse said, “because I had a violent situation. We just started talking about things and she just told me about the senator that she had worked for and he put his hand up her skirt.”

On the podcast, Reade told Halper that Biden pinned her against a wall and penetrated her with his fingers before saying that she was “nothing” to him. Reade also claims that she reported Biden’s harassment (though not assault) to her superiors and was eventually frozen out of her job with Biden’s office and eventually forced out of Washington D.C. altogether.

Lorraine Sanchez, a former co-worker of Reade’s in a California state senator’s office, also told Business Insider that she remembers Reade talking about being sexually harassed by her boss in Washington D.C. and subsequently forced out of her position but does not remember Reade specifically mentioning Biden, though Reade verified it was Biden she was referencing.

Additionally, Reade’s brother, Collin Moulton, and a friend who has chosen to remain anonymous confirmed Reade’s story off the air to Halper and on the record to The Intercept, which also reports that a caller to Larry King Live in August 1993 asking for advice for how her daughter could handle issues with her boss in Washington D.C. was most likely Reade’s mother. Read the full Business Insider report here.