Lt Governor Fairfax of Virginia Accused of Rape Again
(CNN)The chaser for Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax claims there is someone who can approve that a sexual encounter between Fairfax and Meredith Watson dorsum in 2000 was consensual.
Meredith Watson claims that Fairfax raped her during their time as students at Duke Academy 19 years ago.
On Tuesday, in a alphabetic character to a prosecutor, Virginia lawyer Barry Pollack said that a person who knew Fairfax at the time has "stated unequivocally that Ms. Watson'south allegation that she was raped or otherwise sexually assaulted by Mr. Fairfax is fake." Pollack does not place the witness, but says that he lived in the house associated with the fraternity in which Fairfax was a member.
"The eyewitness corroborates that Ms. Watson was a willing participant in sexual activity," Pollack wrote in the letter of the alphabet dated July nine to the district attorney'south function in Durham County, North Carolina.
In the letter, it is unclear whether the man actually witnessed the sexual see. When contacted by CNN for clarity, Pollack said, "I am non interested in going into details publicly."
Watson has previously said that she and Fairfax had been friends in college, merely that they never dated or had any romantic relationship. She alleges that the incident took place while they were both students at Duke University, but she has non said publicly where the declared rape took place.
Fairfax was president of Blastoff Phi Blastoff when he was at Duke. In his letter, Pollack told Commune Attorney Satana Deberry he would share the witness' identity with her.
On Wednesday, the attorney for Watson accused Fairfax of changing his story and called on the lieutenant governor and the "clandestine witness" to testify under oath.
"Five months later on being defendant of rape, Justin Fairfax changes his story nonetheless once again. Offset information technology didn't happen, and so it was consensual, and now for the start fourth dimension he implicates his buddy every bit a participant," Watson's attorney Nancy Erika Smith said in a statement.
"If Justin Fairfax wants the truth to come out, this secret witness should show under adjuration, in public, along with Mr. Fairfax, both his victims and their witnesses," Smith added. "Fairfax continues to fight a public hearing molar and nail. That says it all."
In his letter of the alphabet on Midweek, Pollack said the witness saw Watson initiate a sexual come across.
"The eyewitness observed Ms. Watson initiate a sexual come across with Mr. Fairfax in the eyewitness' room. The eyewitness remained with Ms. Watson after Ms. Watson's sexual encounter with Mr. Fairfax had concluded and Mr. Fairfax had left," Pollack wrote.
According to Pollack, no i involved had been using drugs or alcohol and that Fairfax's friend "recalls the events conspicuously."
The Durham district attorney's part confirmed that Deberry received the letter but would not give any additional comment.
In Feb, Watson became the second woman to accuse Fairfax of sexual set on. Her legal counsel said they are in possession of emails and Facebook letters Watson sent to friends and statements from onetime classmates corroborating that Watson immediately told friends of the alleged rape.
Vanessa Tyson, a professor in California, accused Fairfax of sexual assault during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.
Fairfax has denied both allegations and called for an investigation into the accusations.
The allegations emerged every bit Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam was embroiled in a blackface scandal and facing calls to resign, which would accept left Fairfax in charge.
Pollack sent a letter in June to Deberry forth with the district attorney in Suffolk Canton, Massachusetts, formally requesting that their offices open criminal investigations into the allegations against Fairfax.
"Mr. Fairfax knows that Ms. Watson's accusation is utterly and demonstrably false," Pollack wrote in his letter Tuesday. "Yet, he believes that allegations of sexual assault must be taken seriously and should be investigated."
Both Watson and Tyson have resisted formally requesting a criminal investigation into their claims and have stopped short of pressing charges against Fairfax. The ii women both prefer the matter be handled by the Virginia General Associates and take said they would exist willing to testify publicly in a bipartisan hearing.
A spokeswoman for Fairfax, Lauren Burke, said in a statement Wed that a "large number of Knuckles alum expressing support" had contacted the lieutenant governor'south office in the days and weeks later on Watson's allegation went public in early February.
Burke said that a Full general Assembly hearing "will not become to the truth in the thing of this false allegation."
"A constabulary enforcement investigation will. If Ms. Watson wants to talk nether oath on this...she can practise so with law enforcement officials in Durham," Burke said in a statement Wednesday.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/10/politics/justin-fairfax-meredith-watson-allegation-witness/index.html
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