Lieutenant governor's accuser also says she was raped by a Duke basketball player

[pnwmom]

Source: USA Today

The second woman to come forward to accuse Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault also alleged she was raped by a Duke basketball player, and on Friday night a university spokesperson told USA TODAY Sports that school officials were “looking into” the allegation.

Meredith Watson, in a statement released earlier Friday by her lawyer, said Fairfax committed a “premeditated and aggressive” sexual assault of Watson while both were students at Duke in 2000. In a statement later Friday, Watson described an incident with an unspecified Duke basketball player because “Fairfax has chosen to attack his victim again.”

“He revealed that Ms. Watson was the victim of a prior rape,” Nancy Erika Smith, Watson’s attorney, wrote in the second statement. “That is true. Ms. Watson was raped by a basketball player during her sophomore year at Duke. She went to the Dean, who provided no help and discouraged her from pursuing the claim further. Ms. Watson also told friends, including Justin Fairfax. Mr. Fairfax then used this prior assault against Ms. Watson, as he explained to her during the only encounter she had with him after the rape.

“She left a campus party when he arrived, and he followed her out. She turned and asked, 'Why did you do it?' Mr. Fairfax answered: “I knew that because of what happened to you last year, you’d be too afraid to say anything.”

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/acc/2019/02/08/justin-fairfax-accuser-duke-basketball-player-rape-allegation/2820573002/

[spooky3]

1. Here is a similar story, with details:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11797212

If true—very ugly.

[Cha]

9. Thanks for

the link, spooky.

[spooky3]

12. Hi, Cha!

Did you see the video I posted in the HRC forum?

[Cha]

13. Thank You for

telling me about it!

[sprinkleeninow]

2. I really can't believe I'm hearing/reading this. eom

[brush]

3. This is getting weird.

[SunSeeker]

4. I will never understand rapists.

How sick do you have to be to maintain an erection knowing the woman does not want you and that you are hurting her?

[Lady_Chat]

7. Sadly, hurting a woman is what turns a rapist on

I think it's more about control, sadistic in many ways.

[SunSeeker]

8. That's what I don't get. How could they get off on that shit?

What goes wrong in someone's soul that makes them get off on controlling and causing pain to women?

[oldsoftie]

10. Totally agree and have always wondered the same thing.

not to mention it can be very painful to the rapist as well, for the lack of "obvious" necessities of intercourse. Dont want to be too graphic here. So WHY would they do it ?? I just dont get it.

[dhill926]

38. it's an act of violence....not lust....

and sick indeed...

[SunSeeker]

40. Yes, I know. They get off on the violence. That's what I don't get.

How can someone possibly get off on that shit?

[standingtall]

5. I dont see how there cannot be an investigation now

This has gone outside of politics. Not only is it being alleged that a rape occurred at a university, but that university covered it up.

[COL Mustard]

11. I'm Waiting For The Facts

Before I form an opinion, but it doesn't look good for Mr. Fairfax, and I think the women's stories are credible. I only wish these had been known before we elected him.

[INdemo]

19. Maybe it took Republican research and found Fairfax in the equation with

a golden opportunity for Republicans to do what they do best, start a character assassination of Democrats.
Look if this woman was raped by a Basketball player..well who was it and why is his name not being mentioned. Is he a registered Republican or was there a payoff.

[Buckeyeblue]

14. In my experience I find a lot of people exaggerate, mislead and sometimes out and out lie

about there personal experiences. Sometimes they say something out loud and it sounds good and they stick with it. That's men and women.

Because of that I don't know what to believe most of the time.

[Hav]

16. I have a similar feeling and I'm also unsure what to believe

Some of the things that were supposedly said either sound too cheap for even a bad movie or the reactions of the Dean and the accused are just too unreal for normal human standards to comprehend and would be really sickening if they were true.

To tell a victim she shouldn't press charges sounds like something that would get you into really hot water, and that doesn't even consider the lack of empathy. No idea whether the Dean is still alive but if he is, he surely has an interest to come out if it's not true.
And maybe it's because I have no idea about the mindset of a rapist, but directly telling your victim you did it because it's something that already happened to her is just so weird.

[csziggy]

22. A lot of universities and colleges have been accused of covering up rapes

"For the good of the institution" it is claimed. Too often the campus police put the institution ahead of the interests of the victims. They will discourage the victims from getting examinations or from going to the local police. Maybe it is not happening as much as it used to but for many years this was true - and not that many years ago

It happened here at Florida State University and cost them a lot of money:

Florida State Settles Suit Over Jameis Winston Rape Inquiry
By Marc Tracy

Jan. 25, 2016

Florida State University agreed on Monday to pay $950,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former student who accused the former Seminoles football star Jameis Winston of raping her in 2012.

<SNIP>

In her lawsuit, Ms. Kinsman accused Florida State of violating the federal Title IX law in its handling of her complaint. The suit asserted that university administrators, in apparent violation of federal law, did not promptly investigate either the rape accusation or a witness’s admission that he had recorded part of the encounter on video.

In fact, the examination by The Times found that there had been virtually no investigation at all. The Tallahassee police did not follow obvious leads that would have quickly identified a suspect as well as witnesses, including the one who made the video recording. After the accuser identified Mr. Winston as her assailant, the police did not try to interview him for nearly two weeks or to obtain his DNA.

The detective handling the case waited two months to write his first report and then prematurely suspended his inquiry without informing the accuser. By the time the prosecutor got the case, important evidence had disappeared, including the video of the sexual act.

More: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/sports/football/florida-state-to-pay-jameis-winstons-accuser-950000-in-settlement.html

[Buckeyeblue]

24. Agreed. There does seem to me to be an air of drama that seems

on the edge of not being believable.

[DeminPennswoods]

15. Considering how Duke handled

the 2006 rape charges against members of their men's lacrosse team (palyers suspended, coach fired, season canceled), it seems inconsistent the admininstration would have looked the other way here although I understand Duke basketball and Krzyzewski are bigger deals than lacrosse.

[underpants]

27. Yeah but this is hallowed Ground there

K and the program have had several questionable things happen but it gets swept under the rug by a (private) school that relies on this as part of their identity- it's a great school don't get me wrong- and a sports media industry that relies on Duke basketball.

[ScratchCat]

17. Maybe I turn out to be wrong

but this story just doesn't seem believable. Especially Fairfax allegedly telling her he raped her because he knew he could get away with it because of the other rape. As some else said, it sounds like a bad movie script. To believe this, you'd have to accept that Fairfax is a complete sociopath.

[Ms. Toad]

20. Rapists get very good at choosing victims that will not fight back/report/etc.

And, unfortunately, this means that it is not uncommon for women who have been raped to have been raped repeatedly. The same characteristics that made them a target for the first rape also made them a target for the second rape.

I spent 10 years working at a rape crisis center in a major city. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I heard of second, third, or more, rapes. It was less common for a rapist to identify that he raped the woman because he knew of a prior rape - but not unheard of.

[kcr]

43. Except she reported. So, why would he pick her as a victim?

That makes no sense. Plus it sounds so evil villain scripted.

[LisaL]

45. Yes, as the story goes, she went to the dean and told other people as well.

So why would Fairfax think she wouldn't say anything if he raped her? Doesn't add up to me either.

[Ms. Toad]

48. She did not go beyond reporting him to the school.

Which tells him two thing:

* The school doesn't care (so - to some extent - all women on that campus are fair game - when a school fails to take action on a complaint & discourages women from filing criminal complaints - the campus is less safe for female students. The discouraging of reporting to the police is a specific tactic used by campuses to make themselves appear safer than they are by actually increasing the risk of attack. Incident reporting relies exclusively on reports made to the police, so it was known tactic to discourage reporting to police in order to increase the perception of safety which made it easier for men to rape, and more likely that women would be raped, because those in attendance - as opposed ot those seeking admission - routinely knew the score because of incidents like this )

A quick sampling of articles on the issue:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Is-Reporting-Campus-Sex/147327
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/mar/04/lawsuit-usd-discouraged-victim-reporting-rape/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/michigan-state-university-discouraged-student-reporting-alleged-rape/story?id=54362183
https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2014103100

* She did not pursue criminal charges, when the school ignored her complaint (which, specifically, makes her a safer target because (1) after being rebuffed by the school she - specifically - is less likely to complain to them again and (2) even if she does go to the school, she - specifically - is less likely to go beyond the school.

[kcr]

49. But she DID report.

That's one hell of a gamble to assume a woman is going to give up like that after the first rape. And it's not as if Duke has never cared. And it still reads like an overwrought script.

[Ms. Toad]

50. I've got the experience of working with more than 500 rape survivors

that suggests it was not much of a gamble.

[kcr]

52. Hmm. Maybe.

It could be the fact I haven't worked with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of rape survivors so maybe I'm just cynical, but I know I'm not the only one who thinks that deciding to name one of your alleged rapists just as a right-wing driven scandal is hitting him, but none of the other one(s), isn't simply coincidence.

[Ms. Toad]

55. The reason to name one is to support the other (identified) survivor who is being trashed.

Apparently men are so special that when a woman (who ought to know her own mind) says she did not consent and the man (who is not inside her head) says she did - the man always gets the benefit of the doubt unless/until other women find the courage to speak up. That happened with Cosby, Weinstein, and Kavanaugh - and countless other serial rapists. Watson saw this happening to Tyson and decided to speak up.

There is no similar reason for Watson to put herself through the trauma of reliving every single sexual assault or rape she experienced because she feld a civic duty to disclose one of them. There's really nothing complex about it.

And please stop implying that a well-educated, black, democratic, college professor is complicit in a "right-wing driven scandal." It is offensive.

[58Sunliner]

29. Why yes, you would think of a sociopath. A violent one.

[mr_lebowski]

35. It does have a bit of an 'overplaying of the hand' feel to it, but WTF do I know ...

The concept of the mindset of a rapist is so utterly foreign to me (though I will admit to purposefully charming a few (dozen) ladies willingly out their britches in my day ...) that I can't understand 'logically' any such shit.

[DirtEdonE]

18. If I kept getting run over while crossing the street

I'd become much more careful crossing the street.

Who is behind the ratfcking going on in Virginia? That's the question we should be discussing along with these apparently very well-timed charges. You know, right after the pubicans lost an election and all. Why is me too not demanding justice from pubicans the way they are from Democrats? Why are OUR people always taking it in the neck while theirs remain in office and/or are appointed to critical positions in all three branches of government?

When will me too become them too?

[58Sunliner]

28. I hope your post doesn't mean what I think it means-

"If I kept getting run over while crossing the street I'd become much more careful crossing the street." Sounds like a rapist apologist, and blame the victim.
"When will me too become them too?" Guess you don't get that me too is about not suffering in silence from abusers, not party affiliations.

[DirtEdonE]

33. You can take it however you like

I'm not a rapist so I wouldn't know.

I just don't want to see every Democrat who ever did anything wrong resign while every pubican stays in office. Let's take a breath here. Everyone on earth has done something wrong. Why are only Democrats being held responsible for theirs?

[Iggo]

42. Oh, you're a special one.

[raccoon]

56. ''Who is behind the ratfucking going on in Virginia?'' that is the question. nt

[DirtEdonE]

57. +1 nt

[Captain Stern]

21. Why is the name of the "Duke Basketball Player" unspecified?

Fairfax's name is getting put out there by Ms Watson for committing a “premeditated and aggressive” sexual assault. Fair enough.

Ms Watson's attorney says: “That is true. Ms. Watson was raped by a basketball player during her sophomore year at Duke. She went to the Dean, who provided no help and discouraged her from pursuing the claim further."

Ok. Does this "basketball player" have a name? Why aren't they putting it out there? Ms Watson is claiming to have been raped by two men. She's only naming one of them...and saying the one she's naming raped her, because the first guy got away with it. Right? But, she's still not naming the first guy...the "Duke Basketball Player".

Ms Watson is lying.

[Captain Stern]

32. No. That would be silly. Her reasons for lying are her own. n/t

[Igel]

36. Can we at least make it conditional, "would be her own"?

Instead of letting it stand as the claim and accusation that she actually is lying.

The athlete wasn't accused. It's private. It's not a public matter. What, we either ruin somebody else's life or let the possible sexual assault slide? Is that our standard for justice?

What I don't understand is the bias in the stories. The story is, "OMG, now she's accusing somebody else! Accusing one man isn't enough, now she's spreading how 'out' she's going to be with her accusations."

But there are these two lines: "Fairfax has chosen to attack his victim again." "He revealed that Ms. Watson was the victim of a prior rape."

That seems to be saying that Watson didn't come forward until Fairfax decided that her prior sexual history was grounds for not believing her story against *him*.

It might also be, "Hey, that other guy got off raping her, why you picking on me?"

Or, "That other allegation wasn't proven, so she has a history of making unfounded allegations and so she's a liar."

[Captain Stern]

41. Fair enough "would be her own". Now, here's why I think she's lying.

Her story/tale/version of events, according to the article, is as follows:

Fairfax raped her, and figured he'd get away with it, because he knew she'd been raped by a Duke basketball player the prior year. She claims that when she asked him why he did it he (Fairfax) said: “I knew that because of what happened to you last year, you’d be too afraid to say anything.”

Now, she's letting everyone know what Fairfax did to her. Why is she just naming Fairfax? According to her, she was raped by TWO different men. Why does one deserve anonymity, while the other does not? The first person doesn't deserve anonymity....yet, she grants it to him.

According to her, the reasoning Fairfax used to rape her was entirely based on the fact that the first rape (by unnamed Duke basketball player) happened. If that rape didn't actually happen, then her whole story about Fairfax makes absolutely no sense at all.

It's impossible to prove that she wasn't raped by an unnamed Duke basketball player. That could be any one of about fifteen guys. But it might well be possible to prove that she wasn't raped by a specific Duke basketball player. I think that's why she's not naming him....because it didn't happen.

[58Sunliner]

44. OMG. How ridiculous. She named Fairfax because she was letting people know-

this guy raped more than once. As for the basketball player, why would it matter whether she named him or not. You know nothing about that alleged rape, and since you are obviously NOT a rape survivor maybe you should just stop acting like you are a fricking authority about what women do to cope with being raped and ignored by society and abused by the system legally. It seems that you are looking for a reason to negate her story, based on flimsy rhetoric. Maybe she did not know his name, she just knew he was a basketball player.

[Captain Stern]

47. I'm not looking to negate her story. I'm just saying I don't believe her.

And I explained why I don't believe her.

As for: "Maybe she did not know his name, she just knew he was a basketball player. "

That's just lame.

There are only about fifteen guys on the basketball team at a given time. And, according to her, a lot of people knew that she'd been raped by one of them.........that's the reason she says Fairfax gave for raping her. HE supposedly even knew about it.

Even if we pretend we believe her, she could look at a picture of the 1999 men's basketball team, and point out the rapist, right? Of course she could.

I think she's never, ever, ever, going to name the "Duke basketball player" that allegedly raped her, because it didn't happen.

[maxrandb]

51. How did Fairfax know she was raped?

Did she tell him, and then he raped her?

I smell a rat. Trying to take out one of the 3 Senior politicians in Virginia?....Meh...taking out all three so they can be replaced by Retrumplicans? Priceless

[underpants]

30. It will be interesting to see how this part plays out or if it's even covered much

Duke basketball is a huge element in college sports media. Frankly I've always seen it as the White peoples team. I wouldn't be surprised if the Duke gear people wear is some sort of inside "joke" or hidden message amongst the supremacist types. That's been my observation for years I live in the middle of ACC "tobacco road" country too.

The lacrosse thing was clearly mishandled by the DA And he disserved to be fired. It also exposed the community relationship there and it exposed the sons of privilege that the RW raced out to protect.

[Lonestarblue]

23. Wow. There needs to be an investigation ASAP.

We don’t know what to believe because we don’t know the facts. The accusers and Mr. Fairfax deserve an effort to uncover the facts, and the voters of Virginia deserve to know whether their Lt. Governor is a rapist.

I fear a rush to judgment because of what happened to Al Franken. Some of his accusers were anonymous and could have simply been part of the Roger Stone dirty tricks playbook. We don’t know because Franken was forced out of the Senate without having a chance for an investigation that would either clear his name or prove that he deserved to be forced to resign. Lt. Governor Fairfax deserves an investigation, and the two women who have come forward deserve to share their experiences. The voters of Virginia can then decide whether Fairfax deserves punishment by resignation or impeachment from office.

Many here may not agree with the previous paragraph, but our democratic assumption is that all people are innocent until proved guilty. Guilt by media denunciation is not proof. In a “he said, she said” case, such proof may not be available so it becomes a question of who is more believable. It cannot be easy for women who have been sexually assaulted to come forward in such a public way, and they deserve to be heard. If Mr. Fairfax is found to have a history of sexual violence, then he deserves an end to his public career.

[DirtEdonE]

34. Let's have an investigation like the pubicans did

with kavanaugh - who now sits on the Supreme Court. For LIFE.

They limited the time, scope, witnesses, everything - until they got the outcome they wanted.

That's the way the pubicans roll. Win at all costs.

So let's have equal application of the standards and the law based on that same pubican standard. No problem. I'd agree to that.

[Jarqui]

25. More ugliness

The women seem credible. But with sneaky stuff like James O'Keefe or swiftboating by the GOP, I'm wary of getting too wound up by their stories.

it needs to be investigated.

It also might need some time as other women may come forward.

Fairfax should go through some sort of due process to make sure there is no rush to judgment. I wonder if he can go through that and keep his job though he shouldn't lose his job if these allegations are not substantiated.

Maybe a leave of absence is fair ... and he gets reinstated if he clears himself.

It's a mess and I'm still deliberating on what the best proper path forward is.

[dalton99a]

31. Investigate.

[Corgigal]

37. Who is paying her attorney cost?

[CTAtheist]

39. This doesn't change anything for me.

The reason I say that, is that this information is from the same, single source. 1 Rape or 20 Rapes, there is no corroborating evidence being presented. At least not yet (I'm not saying there is none at all). So, per my dedication to logic and reason, I cannot form any new conclusion based on this. It still seems unsubstantiated, and therefore, nothing but an accusation.

I thus far see no reason for Fairfax to resign. (I am still waiting for more information, which could alter my position.)

[IronLionZion]

46. The 2 white guys wore blackface but the black fellow will be forced to resign

Just another typical day in America

[pnwmom]

54. Two rapes, if they did occur, would be two crimes. Wearing blackface is hurtful but not a crime. n/t

[guillaumeb]

53. Recommended.

Predators often expect their victims to be so shamed that they will say nothing.