Abbott Koloff and Matthew McGrath

The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record

WOODLAND PARK, N.J. — A resident New Jersey woman on Thursday became the 10th woman to publicly accuse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of unwanted physical contact, saying that he grabbed her arm and touched her breast during a chance encounter at the 1998 U.S. Open tennis tournament.

Karena Virginia, a 45-year-old yoga coach, said in a statement that no one asked her to come forward but that she believed it was her “duty as a woman, a mother and an American citizen to speak out and tell the truth about what happened to me.”

Virginia, who lives in Rumson according to a database of addresses, appeared at a press conference in New York on Thursday accompanied by Gloria Allred, a women’s rights attorney and a supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Her statement came one day after Trump dismissed allegations by other women of unwanted touching, kissing and groping as “totally false” during a nationally televised presidential debate. Nine other women have made such accusations in the aftermath of a 2005 video tape being made public recently in which Trump is overheard saying his celebrity status allowed him to grab women by the genitals.

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A Trump spokeswoman, Jessica Ditto, issued a statement on Thursday in response to the latest accusation, alleging that it was “coordinated” with the Clinton campaign as an attempt to smear Trump, and referring to Allred as a “discredited political operative.”

“Give me a break,” Ditto said in the statement. “Voters are tired of these circus-like antics and reject these fictional stories and the clear efforts to benefit Hillary Clinton.”

Allred said that Virginia had shown courage by coming forward and said that her statement showed that “Mr. Trump selects his victims at random.” Virginia said she had come forward to support “other women who had come forward, only to be labeled as liars by Mr. Trump.”

Virginia said that in 1998 she was waiting for a car to take her home from the U.S. Open in New York when she saw Trump approaching her. She said she knew who Trump was, but had never met him. As he walked toward her, she said, he made comments about her to male companions:

“Hey, look at this one, we haven’t seen her before, look at those legs,” Trump said, according to Virginia. She said that she was “in shock” after Trump grabbed her right arm and touched her breast, asking her: “Don’t you know who I am?”

Virginia said she then got into a car that arrived to pick her up, and her shock quickly gave way to a feeling of being ashamed that she had been wearing a short dress and high heels.

“That feeling of shame stayed with me for a while,” she said, adding that it made her “disinclined to wear short dresses or high heels.” She said that for years she “struggled with what to do so as not to attract unwanted attention.”

Virginia said that she discussed the incident with her husband after he had asked her why she wore shawls and longer dresses.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that it had interviewed Virginia about the incident earlier in the week, and that her husband told the newspaper that his wife had told him about it shortly after they met, about one year after it occurred.

Allred said Virginia does not plan to file a lawsuit against Trump but came out with the allegations in light of the “ludicrous” denials Trump had been making about other accusations of sexual misconduct. Other accusers also have said that they went public in response to Trump saying he never inappropriately touched women. One of the accusers is a former contestant on his TV show, The Apprentice.

Virginia, who did not appear to be at home on Thursday when an Asbury Park Press reporter visited her residence in Rumson, described herself on her website as an inspirational speaker, spiritual coach, yoga instructor and intuitive healer. She also said that she is a “TV personality and has written a book about yoga. Among those quoted on her website as praising her work are actor Al Pacino and musician Bruce Springsteen, who has a home in Rumson.