Vanessa Tyson, the college professor who accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax in 2004, issued a lengthy statement Wednesday detailing the alleged incident.
"With tremendous anguish, I am now sharing this information about my experience and setting the record straight," she wrote. "It has been extremely difficult to relive that traumatic experience from 2004. Mr. Fairfax has tried to brand me as a liar to a national audience, in service to his political ambitions, and has threatened litigation. Given his false assertions, I’m compelled to make clear what happened."
Tyson, now a professor at Scripps College, called the encounter with Fairfax “horrific” and said it has caused her “deep humiliation and shame.” Fairfax has said the two had a sexual encounter but described it as consensual.
A spokesperson for Fairfax, a Democrat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tyson’s statement came amid a meltdown at the highest levels of Virginia government. Earlier in the day the state attorney general, Democrat Mark Herring, admitted to state lawmakers he had once worn blackface and apologized at the state capitol. Gov. Ralph Northam is in the midst of another scandal surrounding a racist photo and appearing in blackface as well.
Fairfax is next in line to the governorship, and Herring is second in line.
In the statement, Tyson detailed how “what began as consensual kissing quickly turned into a sexual assault” in a Boston hotel room. While Fairfax’s initial advance was “not unwelcome,” he soon “forcefully pushed” her head towards his crotch.
“Utterly shocked and terrified, I tried to move my head away, but could not because his hand was holding down my neck and he was much stronger than me,” Tyson says in the statement. “As I cried and gagged, Mr. Fairfax forced me to perform oral sex on him.”
Reports of the incident first surfaced on Sunday night. But Tyson had not spoken publicly about it until today.
Fairfax has vehemently denied that the encounter was nonconsensual. On Wednesday, he issued another statement on the subject.
“I wish her no harm or humiliation, nor do I seek to denigrate her or diminish her voice,” Fairfax said. “But I cannot agree with a description of events that I know is not true.”
Fairfax has also questioned the timing of the accusation, which came just as he was being seen as potentially ascending to the Virginia governorship.
Tyson has retained the Washington law firm Katz, Marshall and Banks, which lists sexual harassment law as one of its areas of expertise and represented Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of assaulting her when the two were in high school.
He has also questioned the timing of the accusation, which came just as he was being seen as potentially ascending to the Virginia governorship in the wake of a scandal involving the state’s current governor, Ralph Northam.
The Northam controversy centered on a medical-school yearbook photo that appears to show Northam either in blackface or wearing Ku Klux Klan robes. Northam later denied he was in the photo, but admitted to wearing blackface on another occasion to imitate Michael Jackson.
Let's properly identify the Black person as the current Lt. Governor of the State of Virginia in pic above - Justin Fairfax
And ask where are all the outraged Senate Judiciary Committee minority members - I hear no protests about the accused being guilty as charged.
Hypocrites!!!