Dr. Vanessa Tyson Told Five Friends About Alleged Rape, NYT Says
Peter D'Abrosca
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As the accusations against Virginia’s Democrat Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax keep piling up, as New York Times published the accounts of five women whom the paper says were made aware of the alleged rape by his accuser, Dr. Vanessa Tyson.
“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,” the paper said.
Two other people whom Tyson told were professors who are part of the same fellowship program at Stanford University.
“Two professors currently joining Dr. Tyson in a prestigious fellowship at Stanford told The New York Times that she recounted the episode with Mr. Fairfax to them last Fall, saying he had sexually assaulted her,” according to the report.
According to the report, a political scientist at Purdue University, Nadia E. Brown, said that she, too, was made aware of the allegations. Brown said that 740 academics have signed a letter in support of Tyson.
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) was also made aware of the allegations, but kept them silent.
Sunday night, Big League Politics broke the story about Tyson’s allegations against Fairfax.
At the time of publication, Fairfax has been accused of rape by a second woman, a classmate of his at Duke University.
Justin Fairfax is now accused of rape by a classmate during his time at Duke University, according to her lawyers. This is the second allegation of sexual assault levied against the Virginia Democrat lieutenant governor, following Dr. Vanessa Tyson’s claim that Fairfax sexually assaulted her by forcing her to perform fellatio in a hotel room at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004. Tyson has made it clear that she is willing to cooperate in an investigation of Fairfax, according to a source cited by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Evergreen Partners confirmed to Big League Politics that the firm is representing Meredith Watson.
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