Woman maintains that ex-Rays doctor sexually abused her

Brianna Holzerland, the 26-year-old woman who said in a recent YouTube video former Tampa Bay Rays physician Michael Reilly sexually abused her roughly a decade ago, reaffirmed her statement Wednesday.

"I stand with the facts stated in my original video which took several years for me to verbalize," Holzerland said in a statement released to the Tampa Bay Times. "As I stated in my video if I can help one person that may be in a position that I was in several years ago then that is enough."

In the video published Jan. 17, Holzerland - posting under the name Brianna Rah - says Reilly inappropriately touched her in exam rooms when she, as a 16-year-old, worked in his office. His behavior, she said, prompted her to quit, but when she came back to work for him eight months later, she said "the same thing started happening, and this time it did progress." She says her experiences with Reilly, whom she called "a manipulative sociopath," left her with "severe anxiety" and vulnerable to "panic attacks."

In her statement, Holzerland said she published the video to help educate the public about how abusers groom their victims.

"The importance here is to understand how grooming works," she said. "My goal was to educate the public and help them understand why victims take a long time to come forth in explaining their stories. It is an extremely slow process that is thought out in detail by the abuser."

Reilly, who is now being investigated by the St. Petersburg police, was fired by the Rays on Tuesday, and has resigned from his position at St. Petersburg Catholic High School. He has denied sexually abusing Holzerland, but said in a statement provided by his lawyer that they had "a consensual relationship when she was an adult, which I regret."

Holzerland, in her statement, said she anticipated backlash to her video, which as of Wednesday evening had been viewed nearly 14,000 times.

"I knew criticism would occur when releasing this video since Michael Reilly was looked at as an active and positive member in the community but I was willing to take a stance for others who do not want their names made public," she added.

"As you can see, there is a reason victims become ashamed and embarrassed to open up about the truth. This is attributed to negative comments made by the public which have a larger impact on a victim who has gone through an already difficult situation."