Virginia Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has been accused of sexual misconduct by a second woman.
Attorney Nancy Erika Smith, the same attorney who represented former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson in her sexual harassment lawsuit against the late Roger Ailes, asserted Friday that Fairfax raped her client Meredith Watson in 2000. At the time, both Fairfax and Watson were students at Duke University and were friends but had never been involved romantically, Smith said.
Details of the alleged assault were not disclosed in the statement, but Smith said that Watson has shared her story with friends via email and Facebook messenger, and that former classmates have backed up Watson’s account. Smith called on Fairfax, who graduated from Duke in 2000, to resign.
“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,” Smith, a civil rights attorney and partner at Smith Mullin, P.C., said in a statement. “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.”
One of Watson’s Duke classmates, Kaneedreck Adams, said the alleged assault occurred at a fraternity house in the spring of 2000. Adams, who also was friends with Fairfax, said Watson shared the experience with her when the two were students living near each other in off-campus apartments.
“She was upset,” Adams told the Washington Post. “She told me she had been raped and she named Justin.”
“She said she couldn’t speak, but she was trying to get up and he kept pushing her down,” Adams said. “She said he knew that she didn’t like what was happening, but he kept pushing her down.”
Fairfax dismissed Watson’s allegations Friday as “demonstrably false,” and is requesting for an investigation into the matter.
“Such an investigation will confirm my account because I am telling the truth,” Fairfax said in a statement. “I will clear my good name and I have nothing to hide.”
Earlier this week, Vanessa Tyson, a political science professor at Scripps College and visiting fellow at Stanford University, alleged Fairfax sexually assaulted her in 2004 at a Democratic convention in Boston. Tyson said the encounter was initially consensual, but asserted Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex on him against her will.
“Utterly shocked and terrified, I tried to move my head away, but could not because his hand was holding down my neck and he was much stronger than me,” Tyson wrote in a statement. “As I cried and gagged, Mr. Fairfax forced me to perform oral sex on him.”
Fairfax has denied Tyson’s accusations. The scandal emerged after a racist photo from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook was unearthed. Fairfax would replace Northam, also a Democrat, in the event he steps down.
