The horror...........
The horror...........
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax presides over the Senate at the Virginia State Capitol, February 7, 2019 in Richmond, Virginia.
A woman said Friday that Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax had raped her nearly two decades ago.
Lawyers for that woman, Meredith Watson, made the accusation in a statement that also called on Fairfax to resign from office.
Another woman, California university professor Vanessa Tyson, had recently accused Fairfax of sexual assault in an incident nearly 15 years earlier. He has unequivocally denied Tyson's accusation.
Fairfax's office did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for a response to the second accusation. But his spokeswoman, Lauren Burke, told The Washington Post that "we're calling for an investigation on all of these matters." She said Fairfax would have further response later.
Watson's statement claims she was raped by Fairfax in 2000 in a "premeditated and aggressive" attack while they were both students at Duke University. The two were friends, but had never been romantically involved, according to the statement.
Watson's decision to come forward was spurred by "a strong sense of civic duty and her belief that those seeking or serving in public office should be of the highest character," her lawyers said in the document,
She is not seeking any money in damages, the statement claims.
A New York Times reporter said in a tweet that Watson has been employed as a "fundraising consultant."
Tyson, a politics professor at Scripps College in California, alleged that Fairfax had forced her to engage in oral sex with him in 2004, after they first engaged in "consensual kissing" in his hotel room in Boston.
Fairfax has said the encounter was consensual — a claim Tyson rejects — and that her accusation "simply is not true."
Request for Resignation of Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax
We serve as counsel for Meredith Watson, who was raped by Justin Fairfax in 2000, while they were both students at Duke University. Mr. Fairfax’s attack was premeditated and aggressive. The two were friends but never dated or had any romantic relationship.
Ms. Watson shared her account of the rape with friends in a series of emails and Facebook messages that are now in our possession. Additionally, we have statements from former classmates corroborating that Ms. Watson immediately told friends that Mr. Fairfax had raped her.
Ms. Watson was upset to learn that Mr. Fairfax raped at least one other woman after he attacked her. The details of Ms. Watson’s attack are similar to those described by Dr. Vanessa Tyson.
At this time, Ms. Watson is reluctantly coming forward out of a strong sense of civic duty and her belief that those seeking or serving in public office should be of the highest character. She has no interest in becoming a media personality or reliving the trauma that has greatly affected her life. Similarly, she is not seeking any financial damages.
On behalf of our client, we have notified Justin Fairfax through his attorneys that Ms. Watson hopes he will resign from public office.
Nancy Erika Smith, Attorney for Meredith Watson
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We are so tired of the victims of sexual assault and harassment being further victimized by labeling them as “sluts and nuts” and combing through their backgrounds for anything to smear them. Marge Piercy explains it well in her poem, The Grey Flannel Sexual Harassment Suit.
Heard something interesting today. Democrats cause problems that can’t be solved. Then they push a solution that will not work. It’s very interesting to look at how they operate through that spectrum.
Don't feel bad, I thought it said Viagra at first.My eyes are playing tricks with me from a long night at work and the first thing I saw with this title was “racism and vaginas”
I know they're Democrats, and thus the "enemy", but this whole clutching pearls over blackface is idiotic. All of these people did it as a joke, for the love of God. Hollywood put out a movie called "White Chicks" not too many years ago, a comedy where a couple of black guys dressed up as white women, and no one bats an eye. We've turned into a country full of white pantywaste bootlickers, walking on egg shells to not appear "rayciss". And this is the pool of people we think can defeat the Russians or Chinese in an all-out conflict, neither of which suffer from a population of such feminine, cowardly men? Just have the Chinese soldiers point and yell, "he called me a *****!", and 2/3 of our guys will drop their rifles and apologize. God how nauseating.
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