Vanessa Tyson accuses Justin Fairfax of 2004 sexual assault: Statement

The woman accusing Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of rape released a statement Wednesday that refuted his claim that the sex was consensual and that the allegations were politically motivated.

Vanessa Tyson, a political science professor at Scripps University, said she was traumatized for years after Mr. Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex in 2004.

“With tremendous anguish, I am now sharing this information about my experience and setting the record straight,” she said in a statement. “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.”

The statement was released by the law firm Katz, Marshall & Banks, which she recently hired to represent her in this matter.

Ms. Tyson’s allegation are part of a torrent of scandal engulfing the top Democrats in Virginia.

Gov. Ralph Northam is fighting resignation calls after being linked to a photograph of a man wearing blackface. Mr. Fairfax, his heir apparent who appeared to be the party’s savior, is fending off Ms. Tyson’s claims.

The second in line of succession for governor, Attorney General Mark Herring, admitted Wednesday that he wore blackface at a college party in 1980.

In her statement, Ms. Tyson described the lasting scars from her encounter with Mr. Fairfax when they were both campaign aides at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

“After the assault, I suffered from both deep humiliation and shame. I did not speak about it for years, and I (like most survivors) suppressed those memories and emotions as a necessary means to continue my studies, and to pursue my goal of building a successful career as an academic,” she wrote.

Mr. Fairfax said Monday that the sex was “100 percent consensual” and described Ms. Tyson as “very interested in me” as soon as they met at the convention.

Ms. Tyson told a very different story.

She said Mr. Fairfax invited her to accompany him to fetch some documents from his hotel room and then unexpectedly kissed her, and she kissed him back.

“What began as consensual kissing quickly turned into a sexual assault,” she wrote. “Mr. Fairfax put his hand behind my neck and forcefully pushed my head towards his crotch.”

Ms. Tyson provided a detailed account of how Mr. Fairfax then forced her to perform oral sex, despite what she called her “obvious distress.”

“To be very clear, I did not want to engage in oral sex with Mr. Fairfax and I never gave any form of consent. Quite the opposite. I consciously avoided Mr. Fairfax for the remainder of the Convention and I never spoke to him again,” she said.

Mr. Fairfax claimed that she pursued him after the encounter, including inviting him to meet her mother.

The lieutenant governor also said Ms. Tyson, a fellow Democrat, was attempting a political “smear” to derail his career.

After years of suppressing the memory, Ms. Tyson said, she came forward after seeing a photograph of Mr. Fairfax in a news article last year about his run for lieutenant governor.

“The image hit me like a ton of bricks, triggering buried traumatic memories and the feelings of humiliation I’d felt so intensely back in 2004,” she wrote. “Prior to reading the article, I had not followed Mr. Fairfax’s career and did not know that he was seeking public office. Unsure of what to do, I felt it was crucial to tell close friends of mine in Virginia, who were voters, about the assault.”