Posted on 02/09/2019 9:42:35 AM PST by abb
The woman who has accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of raping her while they were Duke students 20 years ago also says a Duke basketball player raped her.
In response to Fairfax’s denials, Meredith Watson’s lawyer released a statement claiming she was also raped by a basketball player and, when she reported the attack to a school administrator, received no assistance.
The player’s name was not released nor was the name of the school administrator.
According to a report in The News & Observer in 1999, Duke went through a major reshuffling at its administrative level. Several administrators had the title of dean during at least part of that year.
“Mr. Fairfax has chosen to attack his victim again,” Watson’s lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, wrote in the statement, “now smearing her with the typical ‘she’s nuts’ defense. He revealed that Ms. Watson was the victim of a prior rape. That is true. Ms. Watson was raped by a basketball player during her sophomore year at Duke. She went to the Dean, who provided no help and discouraged her from pursuing the claim further. Ms. Watson also told friends, including Justin Fairfax.”
USA Today reported the alleged rape by the basketball player occurred in 1999. Duke University spokesman Keith Lawrence told USA Today the school is “looking into” the allegation. Attempts to reach Lawrence on Saturday were unsuccessful.
The statement from Watson’s attorney said Fairfax used knowledge of her prior rape to plan his own attack on her in 2000.
“She left a campus party when he arrived, and he followed her out,” Smith wrote in her statement. “She turned and asked: ‘Why did you do it?’ Mr. Fairfax answered: ‘I knew that because of what happened to you last year, you’d be too afraid to say anything.’ Mr. Fairfax actually used the prior rape of his ‘friend’ against her when he chose to rape her in a premeditated way.”
Fairfax denied Watson’s allegation in a statement Friday, The Washington Post reported, saying it was “demonstrably false. I have never forced myself on anyone ever.”
Lauren Burke, the Democratic lieutenant governor’s spokesperson, told the Post that Fairfax is “calling for an investigation on all of these matters.”
Fairfax faces calls from many fellow Democrats to resign after Watson’s accusation followed one by Scripps College professor Vanessa Tyson, who accused Fairfax of assaulting her at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, as the Post and others reported.
The Sanford School of Public Policy’s Visitors Board at Duke University is asking Fairfax to step down from his role as a member of the board, according to the Duke Chronicle. Fairfax served on the board from 2008 to 2014 and returned in 2015.
Virginia is already reeling from a political scandal since a photo of someone in blackface surfaced on Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page. Northam has denied that he is in the photo. If Northam steps down, Fairfax is next to line to become governor.
If both Fairfax and Northam resign, Attorney General Mark Herring would become governor. Herring has also admitted to wearing blackface in college.
Republican Kirk Cox, speaker of the Virginia House, would become governor if all three resign.
Staff writer Rashaan Ayesh contributed.
https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2 ... all-player
Justin Fairfax accuser says she was also raped by Duke men’s basketball player
By Bre Bradham | 02/09/2019
On Friday, Duke alumna Meredith Watson became the second woman to accuse Justin Fairfax, lieutenant governor of Virginia and Trinity ‘00, of sexually assaulting her.
Watson, Trinity ‘01, claimed Fairfax raped her when they were undergraduate students. Fairfax denied the allegation. A follow-up statement from Watson’s legal representative released Friday pushed back on Fairfax’s denial and claimed that Watson had been raped before the alleged assault by Fairfax.
The statement said that the alleged previous rape had occurred during her sophomore year by an unnamed Duke basketball player, and that Watson had told Fairfax about it.
“Ms. Watson was raped by a basketball player during her sophomore year at Duke. She went to the Dean, who provided no help and discouraged her from pursuing the claim further,” the statement said.
“Ms. Watson also told friends, including Justin Fairfax.”
Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, wrote in an email Saturday that Duke learned of the allegations Friday night as they became public.
“The university is looking into the matter and will have no further comment at this time,” Schoenfeld wrote.
When asked about the allegation before the men’s basketball game against Virginia Saturday, Jon Jackson, deputy director of men’s basketball and athletics, declined to comment.
When asked Saturday night which basketball player Watson was referencing, Erin Friedlander of Evergreen Partners—the group issuing the statement on behalf of Watson—said the firm was “only providing the information contained in our statements at this time.”
Fairfax has denied both of the allegations against him, calling Watson’s claim “demonstrably false.” The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and multiple Democratic presidential candidates have called on him to resign.
Fairfax claimed that he had a consensual encounter with the first woman to accuse him—Vanessa Tyson, now a fellow at Stanford—who said he forced her to perform oral sex on him while they were working at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.
The allegations come as Virginia’s state politics continue to swirl, after Gov. Ralph Northam admitted to and then denied being in a photo showing a person in a Ku Klux Klan outfit and a person in blackface that was on his page in his medical school yearbook.
Fairfax has demanded an investigation and denied the accusation.
“I demand a full investigation into these unsubstantiated and false allegations,” he said, according to the New York Times. “Such an investigation will confirm my account because I am telling the truth.”
Watson’s first statement outlined her accusation, saying that the details were similar to Tyson’s and that she was friends with Fairfax as an undergraduate.
“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,” the first statement said.
At Duke, Fairfax was a Reginaldo Howard Scholar and a Young Trustee.
On Friday, the University announced it was asking Fairfax to step down from the Sanford School of Public Policy’s Board of Visitors pending the resolution of the allegations.
“I am writing to let you know that Justin Fairfax will be asked to step down from the Sanford School Board of Visitors pending the resolution of the serious and deeply distressing allegations that have been made against him,” wrote Judith Kelley, dean of the Sanford School, in an email to the Sanford community Friday night. “Sexual assault is abhorrent and unfortunately can occur right around us. I urge everyone to take survivors of sexual assault seriously, and to help build an environment that is safe and supportive for everyone.”
This is a developing story. Updates will be added as they become available.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include the comment from Friedlander.
Sigh.......a woman who now says she was raped TWICE by two different rapists? What are the odds of an average young woman, not a slut or hard partier—someone like me—being a two time rape victim?
This is starting to sound like the crazy stuff that was thrown at Kavanaugh.
Perhaps. However, I would like to see the same investigative intensity for a rape claim against a Duke BB player that was exhibited against Lacrosse players thirteen years ago.
They’s lots and lots of payback here.
Raped not in an alley way by a stranger but on campus by another student. Both times. The odds show she needs to play the lottery.
She sounds like a nut and a perpetual victim, just like Blasey Ford.
I totally agree that Fairfax should still get the proctology exam of his life re: his alleged rape of Ms Watson.
But frankly, because he’s a black Rat, I think he’s going to skate on these accusations, just like Billy Jeff Rapist did.
Good link. They didn’t run in the same social circles just like kavanaugh and blasey ford didnt.
Oh and now Tyson, alleged victim 1, was molested as a child. Another 2x victim like Watson.
Even more so the Duke BB rape accusation. In ‘06, Coach K didn’t lift a finger to help the Lacrosse players, or their Coach, Pressler. The weaselly bastard let them twist in the wind.
He had enough clout that had he chose to, he could have stopped the lynch mob.
But he didn’t
Now, we need to know what K knew in 1999, and when did he know it? Did he cover up a rape. Who else knew? No charges? Why or why not?
I want the same lynch mob that was ready to string up the lacrosse team to show they care about this situation.
THE #Metoo Queen of The World is (insane asylum escapee) Ashley Judd, the most molested, raped, abused, and assaulted female who has ever lived.
Seriously! According to what she claims, she’s been sexually abused/assaulted dozens and dozens of times. It’s remarkable.
I wonder who the dean was.
Until proven otherwise, I’m saying Dean Sue Wasiolek.
Thompson was dean.
Thompson was dean til 2004.
Duke and miss due screwed many people. Like Lewis McLeod the Australian soccer player. Miss She tells him you don’t need atty. Guilty based on internal investigation based on double hearsay. Went to court took 4 yr to get diploma still can’t get a job
Typo miss sue
Could this be all about power-struggle driven, smear campaigns between the old guard and the green new deals; ie. Rat fight?
Northam campaign flier removes picture of LG candidate Justin Fairfax
Oct 17, 2017
EXCERPT
In the Fairfax-free flier, created for the Democratic friendly Laborers’ International Union of North America, all references to Fairfax — including his picture — are gone. Those fliers have been used in Northern Virginia.
The union requested a flier that did not include Fairfax, said Brian Petruska, general counsel with the LIUNA Mid-Atlantic Region Organizing Coalition, because Fairfax did not complete their questionnaire and “wasn’t supporting us on the issues,” he said.
Among those issues: Two controversial natural gas pipelines, the EQT Midstream Partners’ Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Dominion Energy-led Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which are proposed to cross Virginia. Fairfax is among the environmentalist Democratic base in Virginia that’s opposed to the pipelines. Northam does not oppose the pipelines. The union also has endorsed Herring, according to Herring spokesman Adam Zuckerman.
Fairfax wants fbi to investigate.
Watson wants to speak at impeachment hearings. Calling Dr. Fraud.
Coach K tried like heck to help but was thwarted by that moron Brodhead who insisted he could handle it himself. He couldn’t.
Tried like heck???? He made one weak statement very late in the game.
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