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Jenna Portnoy
Journalist Covering Delegations of the Virginia, Maryland and DC Congress
A Maryland woman said Friday that she was raped by the lieutenant governor of the Virginia, Justin Fairfax (D), in a "premeditated and aggressive" assault in 2000, while they were both undergraduates at Duke University. She is the second woman this week to be charged with sexual assault.
This woman, Meredith Watson, said Friday in a statement written through the intermediary of her lawyer that she had shared his account immediately after several of his classmates and friends had been victims. Watson did not speak publicly on Friday and his lawyer did not make it available for an interview.
Fairfax denied the allegations forcefully.
"I deny this last unfounded allegation," Fairfax said in a statement. "It's obviously wrong.
Watson was friends with Fairfax at Duke, but they never went out together or had a relationship, said Watson's lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith,
"At the time, Ms. Watson reluctantly expresses a keen sense of civic duty and his belief that those seeking or holding public office should be of the highest quality, "Smith said in his statement. "She has no interest in becoming a media personality or reliving the trauma that has greatly affected her. Likewise, she does not claim any financial compensation. "
Watson asks Fairfax to resign," Smith said.
Fairfax's statement said he would not resign. "I'm asking for a full investigation of these baseless and false allegations," says Smith. "I'm going to erase my name and I have nothing to hide, I've had two full background checks by the FBI and I ran into two heated contests with nothing to such is not raised before. "
Watson's complaint comes at the end of an eventful week that began when a different woman, Vanessa Tyson, accused Fairfax of having sexually assaulted her in 2004 while she was in Boston to attend the Democratic National Convention.
[Tyson has spoken for years about the sexual assault issue]
Fairfax denied seeing him, assaulted Tyson, said he had been a victim of a "smear" and repeated many times that he had had a consensus meeting.
Smith stated that the details of Watson's alleged attack were similar to those described by Tyson.
Kaneedreck Adams, 40, who attended Duke with Watson, said that in the spring, as they lived face-to-face in campus apartments, Watson began to cry.
"She was upset," said the lawyer, a lawyer. "She told me that she had been raped and that she had named Justin."
"She said she could not speak, but she was trying to get up and he pushed her away," Adams. "She said that he knew that she did not like what was happening, but he kept pushing her away."
The alleged attack took place at the fraternity house, Adams said.
She said the two women were friends with Fairfax, who had a year in school. "We all knew that he wanted to do politics," Adams said. "He had a reputation for being very friendly. Some of my friends, we called it sun. He was a nice boy charming and charming.
Watson's lawyer provides an email exchange from 2016 between Watson and Milagros Joye Brown, a friend of Duke. Brown invited a group of duke friends to a fundraiser for Fairfax as he began his campaign for the lieutenant governor.
"Molly, Justin has raped me at the university and I do not want to hear anything about her. Please, please, delete me from any future email about it, please, "Watson wrote on October 26, 2016.
[An isolated governor; all three officeholders under fire]
All week Democrats and Republicans scrupulously examined Tyson's allegation, not knowing what to believe, since Tyson had not offered corroborating evidence.
Watson's claims are likely to stir up chaos in Richmond, where, a week ago, a racist photo on Governor Ralph Northam's (D) 's 1984 yearbook of medicine had been discovered, triggering calls. for his resignation. On Wednesday, Attorney General Mark R. Herring revealed that he was wearing a blackface with a suit at university in 1980.
After Watson's allegations became public on Friday. Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe called for Fairfax's resignation.
"The charges against Justin Fairfax are serious and credible," McAuliffe said in a statement. "It's clear to me that he can no longer effectively serve the people of Virginia as Lieutenant-Governor. I am calling for his immediate resignation. McAuliffe also called for Northam's resignation.
If Northam were to withdraw, Fairfax would be next. And he was preparing to do just that, after the scandal that enveloped Northam and before Tyson accused Fairfax of sexual assault.
Fairfax, a 39-year-old former federal prosecutor, was a rising star in democratic politics. A great-great-great-grandson of slave, he is the second African-American to hold a position in the state of Virginia.
Until this week, Fairfax was best known for silently protesting against the annual Senate tribute to Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Aaron C. Davis, Neena Satija, Rachel Chason, Fenit Nirappil, and Samantha Schmidt contributed to this report.
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