VIRGINIA IS FOR LOSERS
State gov’t falling apart in scandal
The governor of Virginia and the next two in line for his job are all mired in scandals, and a leadership crisis gripped the commonwealth yesterday.
As Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax on Wednesday continued to reject claims that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2004, his accuser — Vanessa Tyson, a California politics professor — issued a lengthy statement outlining her allegations. Below are excerpts:
ON the night of Friday, February 1, 2019, I read multiple news accounts indicating that Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax would likely be elevated to governor as an immediate result of a scandal involving Gov. Ralph Northam. This news flooded me with painful memories, bringing back feelings of grief, shame and anger that stemmed from an incident with Mr. Fairfax that occurred in July 2004 during the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
I met Mr. Fairfax on July 26, 2004, when he and I were working at the convention. We struck up a conversation on the first day of the convention and soon realized we had a mutual friend. We crossed paths occasionally during the first two days and our interactions were cordial, but not flirtatious.
We commiserated about our long work hours, and on the afternoon of the third day of the convention, July 28, 2004, Mr. Fairfax suggested that I get some fresh air by accompanying him on a quick errand to retrieve documents from his room in a nearby hotel. Given our interactions up to that time, I had no reason to feel threatened and agreed to walk with him to his hotel. I stood in the entryway of the room and after he located the documents, he walked over and kissed me.
Although surprised by his advance, it was not unwelcome and I kissed him back. He then took my hand and pulled me towards the bed. I was fully clothed in a pantsuit and had no intention of taking my clothes off or engaging in sexual activity. In the back of my mind, I also knew I needed to return to convention headquarters.
What began as consensual kissing quickly turned into a sexual assault. Mr. Fairfax put his hand behind my neck and forcefully pushed my head towards his crotch. [She describes in detail the alleged assault.]
I cannot believe, given my obvious distress, that Mr. Fairfax thought this forced sexual act was consensual . . . Quite the opposite. I consciously avoided [him] for the remainder of the convention and I never spoke to him again.
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.
Years later, in October of 2017, I saw a picture of Mr. Fairfax accompanying an article in The Root about his campaign for lieutenant governor in Virginia. 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.
That October, as the #MeToo movement intensified, women throughout the world began forcefully speaking out about the sexual violence they had experienced and the impact of those experiences on their lives. The courage of so many women coming forward to confront powerful men and systems that allow such abuse to occur are part of what inspired me to action.
By December 2017, I not only told many friends that Mr. Fairfax had sexually assaulted me but I also reached out to a personal friend at The Washington Post and spoke to his colleague about the assault.
After The Washington Post decided in March 2018 not to run my story, I felt powerless, frustrated and completely drained.
[On] Feb. 1, as stories appeared in the media suggesting that Gov. Northam would have to resign and that Mr. Fairfax would be sworn in as governor, I felt a jarring sense of both outrage and despair. That night I vented my frustration [in a private post] on Facebook . . . I did not identify . . . Fairfax by name but stated that it seemed inevitable that the campaign staffer who assaulted me during the Democratic Convention . . . was about to get a big promotion.
On Sunday night, before I had time to decide on a course of action, an online publication published a screenshot of my Facebook post, identified me by name, and posted pictures of me. In response, at 2:55 a.m. on Feb. 4 . . . Mr. Fairfax issued a statement . . . calling me a liar and falsely characterizing the reasons The Washing- ton Post decided not to [publish].
The Post was forced to repudiate Mr. Fairfax’s statement that there were “significant red flags and inconsistencies within the allegations” which led it to decide not to publish a story about my account . . . Mr. Fairfax’s suggestion that The Washington Post found me not to be credible was deceitful, offensive and profoundly upsetting.
With tremendous anguish, I am now sharing this information about my experience and setting the record straight. It has been extremely difficult to relive that traumatic experience . . . 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. I very much wish to resume my life as an academic and professor. I do not want to get further embroiled in this highly charged political environment.