Second Woman Accuses Lt. Gov. Fairfax Of Sexual Assault (UPDATE ADDED)
[guest post by Dana]
This time it’s an accusation of rape being made by a former college classmate, Meredith Watson:
Lawyers for Meredith Watson released a statement Friday saying that she was raped by Fairfax while they were both Duke University students in 2000, and called for Fairfax’s resignation.
Here is a statement released by her lawyers:
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.
The law firm said that Fairfax has been made aware of this accusation. So far he has not commented on this latest allegation.
The accusation by Watson comes only days after Dr. Vanessa Tyson released a statement describing what happened between her and Fairfax. Interestingly, witnesses say that Dr. Tyson told them about the encounter with Fairfax:
In separate interviews Thursday and Friday, five friends of Dr. Tyson said she told them of the encounter either in late 2017, early 2018 or last Fall. One, a mutual friend of Dr. Tyson and Mr. Fairfax, who asked not to be named to protect his own privacy, said he dated Dr. Tyson in the late 1990s and believed her account. Given her experience with abuse as a child, he said, she was not the type of person to become intimate in the way she described with someone she had just met.
Remember, too, that it was reported that Tyson told her story to Democratic representative as well:
Dr. Tyson’s account was also partly corroborated late Wednesday night by Representative Bobby Scott, Democrat of Virginia, whose aides said Dr. Tyson told the congressman a year ago that she had made an allegation of sexual assault against Mr. Fairfax, without offering details.
UPDATE: Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has denied the latest allegation made against him:
I deny this latest unsubstantiated allegation. It is demonstrably false. I have never forced myself on anyone ever. I demand a full investigation into these unsubstantiated and false allegations. Such an investigation will confirm my account because I am telling the truth. I will clear my good name and I have nothing to hide. I have passed two full field background checks by the FBI and run for office in two highly contested elections with nothing like this being raised before. IT is obvious that a vicious and coordinated smear campaign is being orchestrated against me.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
Yikes.
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 2:04 pmTerry McAuliffe calls for Fairfax to resign.
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 2:14 pmWhy must he why must he attack the cat?
Colonel Haiku (467f23) — 2/8/2019 @ 2:25 pmMust be the dawg in him…
Update added:
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 2:26 pmI’m beginning to wonder if being blackmailable is a requirement for office in some states.
Gryph (5efbad) — 2/8/2019 @ 2:28 pmSo all Northam has to do is hang on while the media goes after Fairfax, and the partial birth abortion/infanticide issue goes away.
Rochf (877dba) — 2/8/2019 @ 2:52 pm“demonstrably false”? How are you going to demonstrate the falsity? Was there a third person there?
Harvey (0b5d76) — 2/8/2019 @ 2:54 pmImagine that: Kathy Tran’s little foray into abortion absolutism is bringing down the entire damn Virginia Democrat Party.
JVW (54fd0b) — 2/8/2019 @ 2:56 pm8. Don’t hold your breath J. If the Dems haven’t self destructed by now…
Gryph (5efbad) — 2/8/2019 @ 2:59 pmVirginia’s new state motto should be: Hold my beer.
Rochf (877dba) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:00 pmDuke University? I know 2 jabronis plus a whole athletic team of alums that are laughing their pasty arses off.
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:01 pmrace baiting, not patriotism is the refuge of the scoundrel
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/darrensands/virginia-gov-ralph-northam-survival-plan
narciso (d1f714) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:05 pmHe needs to make up his d#mn mind, no Tom Kirkmans need apply:
http://hotair.com/archives/2019/02/08/riding-northam-surrenders-gop-tax-cuts-wapo-reports-stronger-position/
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:13 pmThe ugliest moment of the whole Kavanaugh ordeal is when he had to go on TV with his wife and tell the world that he was a virgin throughout college. Not because he should or shouldn’t have been sexually active in those years, but because it was nobody’s goddam business. So the only possible way this Fairfax thing can proceed is that he go on TV and provide a list of every single woman with whom he was sexually intimate from age 14 through the present.
(No, not really. That would be a new low in crassness and exploitation, but it’s the kind of garbage move that would fit right in with these stupid times.)
JVW (54fd0b) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:17 pmCory Booker is calling for Fairfax to resign:
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:18 pmOf course there are more…
I wonder what the ultimate game plan is there. Keep Northam however they can to avoid succession o a Republican governor? That means FAirfax and the other guy in black face are expendable, regardless of race or anything else.
Patricia (3363ec) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:22 pmKirsten Gillibrand too…
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:24 pmPatricia,
I read #3, #4, and #5 are getting ready to go public. Don’t know if it’s just a rumor, but wouldn’t be surprised.
As far as Northam’s personal game plan…
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:32 pmI thought the ugliest moment of the Kavanaugh smear was the msm’s shift to ‘temperment’ when CBF’s story and personal particulars fell like a house of cards and the pile-on accusers and legal camera hogs were exposed as nutbags and shills. They shifted gears with no shame. It was as obvious as it was despicable.
Imagine getting angry at people trying to destroy your life for political motives.
harkin (75c725) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:40 pmand yet neither ford nor swetnick, nor avenatti, or monica, have been made accountable for their lies, by a proper judicial body,
narciso (d1f714) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:43 pm“The ugliest moment of the whole Kavanaugh ordeal is when he had to go on TV with his wife and tell the world that he was a virgin throughout college.”
– JVW
He didn’t “have” to do that. He chose to do that. He chose to do that either because A) it was true, B) he thought it would be compelling, or C) both. And to be perfectly frank, if it was A it was probably also B.
Leviticus (efada1) — 2/8/2019 @ 3:50 pmI feel very badly for Fairfax and his family. He has two young children who are now caught up in something so beyond their control. I hope that they are buffered from the awfulness thatvis now, and the more that is sure to come. With that, I also don’t want to see him step down until an investigation is completed. It certainly doesn’t look good for him now, given that these women told others about what happened to them, but due process is just that.
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 4:00 pmjeff bezos is dragging FOUR kids through his tawdry hooker scandal
that’s like 100% more
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/8/2019 @ 4:02 pmHe didn’t “have” to do that. He chose to do that.
Instead of him seeing it as being compelling, it seems to me that he probably saw it as the only way to stop the manufactured onslaught of phony stories that the media were happy to entertain.
JVW (54fd0b) — 2/8/2019 @ 4:04 pmhe could still be a virgin and a raper he just has very poor rape skills
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/8/2019 @ 4:09 pmA contemporaneous complaint may be corroboration. Rehearsing your story with friends fourteen years later in preparation of taking it on the road is not corroboration.
What else is not corroboration is a mob shouting the same accusation. Unless the accused weighs the same as a duck, of course.
nk (dbc370) — 2/8/2019 @ 4:13 pmBet he likes beer.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/8/2019 @ 4:19 pmIn other circus news:
Narciso (d76f90) — 2/8/2019 @ 4:32 pmhttps://babalublog.com/2019/02/08/cuban-state-security-ex-chief-arrested-by-fbi-in-miami/
This was the other bit of news:
https://mobile.twitter.com/RobElgasABC7/status/1093997828966359042
Narciso (d76f90) — 2/8/2019 @ 4:32 pmCNN saying that Delegate Patrick Hope is drafting articles of impeachment for Justin Fairfax.
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 6:00 pmShould add: delegate will introduce them Monday if Fairfax doesn’t step down this weekend.
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 6:03 pmYes, Dana, I heard other women are coming forward too. They never do it to just one, do they?
It sure looks bad though, that the only one being forced out is the African American guy. Can’t wait to see what the twitter mob says about that.
Patricia (3363ec) — 2/8/2019 @ 7:39 pmFrom earlier stories speculating about Northam’s impeachment, I gathered that the Virginia constitution provides for impeachment only for misconduct while in office. Now, if Fairfax were to be convicted of rape in either Massachusetts or North Carolina ….
BTW, statutes of limitations are tolled if the defendant does not reside openly in the state. Generally. Massachusetts’ and North Carolina’s might read differently.
Further, BTW. What’s with the two “t”s in Massachusetts? A double “s” can be pronounced but who can pronounce a double “t”? It’s got to have its origin in some elitist, likely racist, literacy test.
nk (dbc370) — 2/8/2019 @ 7:43 pmHere you go, nk:
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 7:53 pmJeez, it’s like Virginia totally plagiarized the impeachment clause of the US Constitution!
What a state!
Dave (1bb933) — 2/8/2019 @ 7:58 pmThe actual Indian tribes were called Massachusett, no final s.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusett
The modern form was apparently used in the original royal charter of 1628 and the charter of 1629 which superseded it.
And I have never heard anyone pronounce the name with a double s, much less a double t: Mas-a-chu-sets.
Kishnevi (e2dc4e) — 2/8/2019 @ 8:02 pmThank you, Dana. It would be an interesting legal debate both on both of the bolded parts:
He is accused of offending against Massachusetts and North Carolina not Virginia, and he was not in office.
nk (dbc370) — 2/8/2019 @ 8:07 pmWhich may help you understand why people say that a sitting President cannot be indicted for a crime unless he is impeached first, Dave.
nk (dbc370) — 2/8/2019 @ 8:10 pm
nk (dbc370) — 2/8/2019 @ 8:12 pmbothon bothIt’s contagious.
nk, Massachusetts is a Commonwealth.
Pilpul, I know…
Kishnevi (e2dc4e) — 2/8/2019 @ 8:26 pmKamala Harris joins the “Fairfax must resign choir.”
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 8:30 pmMeredith Wilson, Meredith Willson (of Music Man fame), or Meredith Watson? Is “Wilson” Meredith Watson’s maiden name?
Golden Eagle (cfa4db) — 2/8/2019 @ 8:39 pmEh.
Dana (023079) — 2/8/2019 @ 8:49 pmBlackstone’s Commentaries Book 4 Chapter 15
It is true, says this learned judge [referring to Hale’s Pleas of the Crown, then the standard text for criminal law], that rape is a most detestable crime, and ought therefore severely and impartially be punished with death; but it must be remembered, that it is an accusation easy to be madem hard to be prived, but harder to be defended by the party accused though innocent.” He then relates two very extraordinary cases of malicious prosecution for this crime, that had happened under his own observation; and concludes thus: “I mention these instancesm that we may be the more cautious upon trials of offenses of this nature, wherein the court and jury may with so much ease be imposed upon, without great care and vigilance; the heinousness of the offence many times transporting the judge and jury with so much indignation, that they are overhastily carried to the conviction of the person accused thereof, by the confident testimony of sometimes false and malicious witnesses.”
The next section btw is devoted to another offence “of still deeper malignity, the infamous crime against nature, committed with either man or beast.”
Kishnevi (e2dc4e) — 2/8/2019 @ 9:03 pmAtticus Finch would concur.
nk (dbc370) — 2/8/2019 @ 9:26 pmExcept it doesn’t say that at all, Counselor.
It says if you are impeached and convicted, you are “nevertheless” subject to the legal process (i.e. an impeachment trial is not a replacement or substitute for a normal trial).
That follows logically from the immediately preceding clause, which says that “Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend further than removal from office and disqualification to hold […] any office […] under the Commonwealth.”
That wording specifically excludes any change in legal status or loss of immunity from prosecution (which would “extend further” than loss of office and disqualification).
Since the convicted is subject to prosecution after impeachment, and since the conviction itself does not “extend to” any legal consequences other than loss of office, the convicted must have also been subject to prosecution before impeachment.
The state moves for summary dismissal of the defense’s frivolous motion and suggests an exemplary fine of three potatoes.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/9/2019 @ 12:07 amOk, I was over-optimistic, it did not help you understand.
nk (dbc370) — 2/9/2019 @ 6:21 amHes splitting atoms with his mind again, I dont see how you can cut the gordian knot.
Narciso (7a3154) — 2/9/2019 @ 6:26 amIt’s the ghostly culture of confederate apologists that gives cover
It’s more like the ghastly culture of the Democratic Party which has gone from the party of slavery, to the party of secession, to the party of the KKK and Jim Crow, to the party of Prohibition, to the party of Progressivism, to the party of the welfare state, to the party of sexually-transmitted diseases and abortion, and lately to the party of outright banana republic socialism. Like a virus which is constantly mutating.
nk (dbc370) — 2/9/2019 @ 6:59 amDaley seems to have hit a snag on the way back to city hall, maybe that rapper cat needs an opportunity, snorfle.
Narciso (7a3154) — 2/9/2019 @ 7:15 amI left out the party of the income tax.
Acting AG Whitaker missed a great opportunity at the hearing when he was asked whether there were any good people at Charlotteville. He should have said: “No. They were all Democrats.”
nk (dbc370) — 2/9/2019 @ 7:24 amThey were already in Yosemite Sam mode, they were liable to shoot someone.
Narciso (7a3154) — 2/9/2019 @ 7:33 amUnlike the rest of your list, this one is inaccurate.
The Republicans (and later TR’s “Bull Moose” off-shoot) were the original party of Progressivism.
The unabashed racist Wilson took it a step further, to War Socialism.
Which is why having an ignorant piece of fecal matter like Trump in charge of the other party is such a bad idea.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/9/2019 @ 7:50 amWhen you ask a mule his ancestry, he always names the horse. My impression of TR’s progressivism is that he ended the reign of Manifest Destiny; and instituted conservationism, both as an idea, and in the material form of the national parks, forests and preserves. I like all those things. What else?
nk (dbc370) — 2/9/2019 @ 8:40 amDidnt he just expand it to the Pacific (phillipines) and southward (caribbean) he was a moderate on the race question, he tried to resolve the Russia japanese war, he would have committed us to world war one at first opportunity.
Narciso (7a3154) — 2/9/2019 @ 8:49 am51… I watched the highlights of Whitaker’s appearance… multiple instances of Democrats beclowning themselves with their idiotic questions and posturing. Hadn’t paid much attention to Whitaker before, but his responses showed he could give much better than he got.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/9/2019 @ 9:09 am57–I loved watching him tell Jerry Nadler his 5 minutes was up
Rochf (877dba) — 2/9/2019 @ 11:40 amWe need at least an NIT-sized tourney to decide the Mayorship here.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 2/9/2019 @ 11:46 amDemocrats benefitted from the application of Prohibition and its excesses provided the funding base for future benefactors (i.e. the Kennedy family, southern moonshiners), but the concept of Prohibition originated from the Temperance movement which was largely a blue-nose Northern republican construct.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 2/9/2019 @ 11:49 amThey more or less settled a few days ago on a candidate to replace Justin Fairfax: State Senator Jennifer McClellan, who is black, a woman and a Democrat and is “a longtime Richmond legislator who was already thought to have statewide ambitions and has a close relationship with Senator Tim Kaine.”
But there’s a real problem. There’s no real grounds for impeachment. He probably hasn’t raped anyone in the last dozen years.
Sammy Finkelman (4b90f8) — 2/12/2019 @ 6:37 pmHeh, quilted northam is going nowhere, hes just going to be more insufferable going forward.
Narciso (dcc704) — 2/12/2019 @ 7:19 pm