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Justin Fairfax, Virginia lawyer, governor, is asking attorneys in Massachusetts and North Carolina to open a criminal investigation into allegations of sexual assault made against Fairfax early in the year. l & # 39; year.
Barry J. Pollack, a Washington-based Fairfax lawyer, sent letters to prosecutors in Suffolk, Mass., And Durham County, North Carolina on Wednesday, claiming that the allegations against Fairfax "should be made." subject of a rapid and exhaustive investigation ".
Fairfax firmly denied the sexual assault charges made earlier in the year while Virginia had been shaken by three political scandals triggered by the discovery of a racist photo on the page of the first half of the year. Virginia Governor's School of Medicine Ralph Northam's yearbook.
Vanessa Tyson, who met Fairfax at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, claimed to have assaulted her shortly after their meeting. Meredith Watson, a former classmate of Duke University, said Fairfax had raped her in 2000. Fairfax denies the charges.
The two women called on Virginia lawmakers to hold public hearings to detail their charges in order to force Fairfax to leave office. But lawmakers have not scheduled hearings yet and no women have lodged a complaint against Fairfax in the states where the alleged facts occurred.
In the letters obtained by CBS News, Pollack writes: "If an investigation were to determine that the allegation was true, it should be subject to criminal prosecution.Inversely, if an investigation were to determine that the allegation was false, it would be the Governor General Fairfax confident would be the conclusion of any impartial and professional investigation, the record should be closed and the public informed ".
In his letter to Satana Deberry, Durham County Attorney, N.C., Pollack said he had tried unsuccessfully "repeatedly" over the past two months to contact his office. A letter to Ian Polumbaum, Deputy Attorney of Suffolk County, Mass., Suggests that Mr. Pollack spoke directly to his office.
No office could be reached immediately for a comment late Wednesday. Neither jurisdiction has said in recent months that she was conducting a criminal investigation.
In his letters, Pollack notes that Tyson and Watson discussed their accusations with Gayle King on "CBS This Morning" in April, appearances that he described as "obviously scheduled to try to influence a special session of the Virginia General Assembly", while the two women were calling for hearings public. Pollack writes that Watson appeared on CBS despite an "assertion that she was reluctant to appear and had no interest in becoming a media personality".
In the CBS interview, Tyson said that she had been made public in February only after a racist photo was found on the Northam directory page. She feared that if Northam resigned, Fairfax would automatically become governor.
"Voters in Virginia have the right to know," said Tyson.
Watson repeated to King his accusations that Fairfax had raped her 19 years ago while they were students at Duke University.
"If I had the strength or courage to say something in 2000, maybe it would never have happened to him," Watson said.
Tyson's lawyers have since called the latest Fairfax move a "new political stalemate" that shows his "lack of respect for victims of sexual violence" in a statement released Thursday.
"As a former prosecutor, the lieutenant-governor certainly knows that potential targets of criminal investigations do not guide prosecution decisions," said lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks. "Despite his protests over the unfairness of such allegations in the press, the misrepresentation of the facts in his letter is precisely intended to do that."
Watson's lawyers responded in the same direction.
"If Justin Fairfax wanted the public to know the truth, he would have welcomed the hearing before the Virginia legislature at the request of Ms. Tyson and Ms. Watson," Nancy Erika Smith said in a statement.
Fairfax vehemently denied the accusations following the interviews and redoubled calls for the police investigation. But Watson told King that she feared that criminal investigations would mislead the case.
"You have a person in a leadership position who is able to influence legislation on how these problems will be treated, and he is a predator," Watson said.
Pollack's letters also contain copies of the results of a polygraph test conducted by Fairfax in March to answer questions about the charges against him.
As the next successor, Fairfax appeared ready to assume the Northam governorship in February, who was about to resign after apologizing for appearing in the directory photo and then withdrawing his apology. But a few days later, the charges against Fairfax surfaced, easing the pressure on Northam, still in office. Fairfax remains in office, as does Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, who also admitted in February that he took an insensitive photo of the race while studying.
The three men maintained lower public profiles in the months that followed, but appeared together last week convene a special session of the Virginia General Assembly next month to consider a bill to curtail gun rights in the Commonwealth.
Northam is limited in time and Fairfax and Herring were known to be preparing for potential 2021 Governor positions – but these plans are changing. Seeking to support his party, former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, who had openly flirted with a presidential campaign, is now gearing up for another governorship race in 2021. Virginia law allows a governor to fill a consecutive term a former governor to run again.
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