The woman accusing beleaguered Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault may be pressing charges soon.
Vanessa Tyson’s lawyer said Wednesday that her client is planning to meet with Massachusetts prosecutors and police to discuss her allegation.
Fairfax accuser may press charges
Tyson, who is a professor at Scripps College in California, has accused Fairfax of forcing her to perform oral sex on him 15 years ago at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July 2004. Fairfax has denied the allegation and says the encounter was consensual.
The allegations against Fairfax have drawn comparisons to the Brett Kavanaugh controversy, and the Fairfax case even involves the same lawyers: Tyson has retained Debra Katz, the attorney for Christine Blasey Ford, and Fairfax has hired lawyers who represented Kavanaugh. Katz announced Wednesday that her client would meet with Boston authorities to describe the alleged attack.
“I spoke with Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins this afternoon,” Katz said in a statement. “Dr. Tyson will meet with members of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s staff and law enforcement to detail her allegations of sexual assault. We are working to schedule a meeting.”
Massachusetts has a 15-year statute of limitations that would expire this year. Suffolk County district attorney Rachael Rollins said Wednesday that her office reached out to Tyson’s lawyers last week and was standing ready to investigate if Tyson files a criminal complaint.
“We would offer any number of services starting from getting them in touch with counselors all the way, if they were so inclined, to seek prosecution,” Rollins said.
Lt. governor welcomes investigation
A source close to Tyson’s lawyers reportedly said previously that Tyson would not seek charges and that she just “wanted to make her statement about what happened and get back to her life.” Katz has since accused Fairfax of intimidating her client after the lieutenant governor’s lawyers floated the possibility of pursuing criminal proceedings against Tyson for filing false claims if she were to press charges.
“Earlier today, Lt. Governor Fairfax’s spokeswoman issued a shocking threat…that Lt. Governor Fairfax would initiate criminal charges against Dr. Tyson if she pressed charges against him for sexually assaulting her in 2004. This is a clear effort to obstruct justice. Dr. Tyson will not be bullied and she will not be silenced by such threats,” Katz said in a statement. “As Dr. Tyson stated earlier, she will cooperate with all appropriate investigations, and awaits further word from leadership in the Virginia legislature about how it will proceed.”
Fairfax has said that he welcomes a “full, fair and impartial and non-political investigation.”
A second woman accused Fairfax last week of raping her when they were both students at Duke University in 2000. Fairfax has denied the allegation.
Virginia dumpster fire
The sexual assault allegations against Fairfax dropped like a bomb in the Virginia Democratic Party after Gov. Ralph Northam was accused of posing in a racist photograph in his 1984 medical school yearbook; however, neither Northam nor Fairfax have resigned. And the maelstrom of scandal engulfing the Virginia Democrats got worse when the third in line for the governor’s seat, Mark Herring, also admitted to having worn blackface.
Meanwhile, there has been no concerted push by Democrats to oust Fairfax. Many called for his resignation after the second allegation emerged, but condemnation did not come as swiftly as one might expect given the Democrats’ behavior during the Kavanaugh nomination. A Virginia Democrat also initiated and then backed off an impeachment threat.
Actions like these in the #MeToo era have left some conservatives saying that the Democrats have a double standard when it comes to handling assault allegations, with some even accusing Democrats of handling Fairfax with kid gloves.
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