by Neil W. McCabe

The friend of the Somerville woman who charged a Somerville doctor with sexual assault confirmed to The Somerville News that she was interviewed by Cambridge Police today and asked to recount her memory of the evening.

It was between at or around 10:30 p.m. when the friend called the doctor on his cell phone to invite him to the accuser’s apartment, she said.

The doctor told her that he was in his car and that he had to drive back to his apartment before coming over, she said. He arrived roughly 30 minutes after the phone call.

The friend said her memory of the night was cut short by a blackout after drinking shots from a bottle of golden tequila the doctor brought with him.

Once the doctor arrived, the three of them sat on the living room floor in a circle, and he poured the shots of tequila. “He seemed very comfortable in his own space,” she said. “I don’t remember what we were talking about, but he wasn’t talking to me.”

The friend said her next memory is of waking up on the couch, naked from the waist down and not knowing how she got on the couch or how her shorts ended up at the other end of the room.

Afterwards, the two women talked about what happened and the accuser told the friend that she was reluctant to speak to either the police or her therapist, she said.

Until the police called this afternoon, the friend has assumed that the events that night were just something she had to keep to herself, she said.