The prosecutor in solidly Democratic Middlesex County didn’t do our solidly Democratic governor any favors last week.

On Wednesday, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that no charges will be filed against the former Murphy campaign worker who was accused by another campaign worker of sexually assaulting her in 2017.

That’s a bad break for Phil Murphy.

Imagine that Al Alvarez had been indicted on a charge that he sexually assaulted Katie Brennan in April of 2017. Murphy would then have been able to proclaim that the justice system works after all - despite the bungled handling of the case the prior year by the prosecutor in solidly Democratic Hudson County.

And he also could have proclaimed that he could no longer discuss the case because a trial was pending.

But now Murphy has a lot of explaining to do. And what he has to explain is just how a woman who alleges a sexual assault can expect to be heard in this state.

Evidently she needs either an eyewitness or a video. That’s what Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi told me Friday during a break in the hearing by a bipartisan committee into the matter.

Schepisi noted that the prosecutor said in a statement that the charges were dropped because of “a lack of credible evidence and corroboration that a crime was committed.”

That sure sounded like the prosecutor was saying that Brennan’s description of the event was not believable, said Schepisi.

“That’s what it would imply,” said Schepisi, a Bergen County Republican who is a lawyer by trade. “She sounded quite credible to anyone who heard the story.”

She certainly did when she testified to the committee.

And then there’s the question of corroboration. Immediately after the incident back in April of 2017, Brennan said she immediately called her husband, who was away in Europe. Then the next morning she also gave her account to a girlfriend and Justin Braz - also a campaign worker who is also a state employee - before going to the police.

Schepisi said that as far as the committee has learned, neither prosecutor bothered to interview the three to get corroboration. Neither prosecutor took the matter to a grand jury either, she said.

“How do you ever prove that you’ve been raped without somebody else witnessing it?” she said. “They’re almost setting a precedent: Either you have a video or a physical injury or there’s no sense in coming forward.”

Schepisi said those on the committee still don’t know whether the prosecutors interviewed Alvarez or, if so, what he might have told them. His lawyers put out a statement Thursday that labeled the encounter “consensual.”

That’s something that should be settled by a jury, Schepisi said. Perhaps Alvarez has an explanation, but Brennan’s account sounds more plausible.

She has stated that after he offered her a ride home from a bar at which campaign workers had gathered after work, he gained entry to her home by asking if he could use the bathroom.

He then began ripping her clothes off, she has said, and she escaped only by locking herself in a bathroom. After Alvarez left, she immediately phoned her husband, she said.

If the encounter was consensual, why would she have called her husband?

Without a trial we’ll never know.

At the moment it looks like there’s not much reason for other possible victims to come forward, said Schepisi.

“As somebody who was sexually assaulted in my teens, I was one of those who didn’t come forward,” she said. “This discourages other women from coming forward.”

It certainly looks that way, and not just to the Republican women on the committee. The Democratic women have been equally tough on the governor’s people.

This incident came at the worst possible time for Murphy. As it was developing, so was the national “Me Too” movement to highlight sexual assault and harassment.

Murphy’s wife Tammy came out as a survivor of a sex assault that occurred during her days at the University of Virginia. Now the governor has to provide an explanation of why a similar “Me Too” charge failed to lead to a full investigation.

Before Murphy starts answering questions, perhaps he might want to ask a few. I’d suggest he ask his attorney general, Gurbir S. Grewal, why he hasn’t demanded to know why these two county prosecutors didn’t take Brennan at her word.

Their defense so far is that there was no political interference. They say Brennan was treated like another other woman claiming to have been sexually assaulted.

That’s the problem, said Schepisi.

And if I were Murphy, I’d try to find a solution before this committee does.

ADD – My fellow columnist Tom Moran informs me that attorney Alan Zegas, who is representing Brennan, told him that the Hudson County prosecutor did indeed interview Brennan’s husband after the incident.

Schepisi said the committee was not informed of any interviews by the prosecutors and is working with the testimony that has come before it.