The statement released by a lawyer for the woman, Meredith Watson, said her client was coming forward out of a sense of civic duty after learning about allegations disclosed this week by Vanessa Tyson, a political-science professor at Scripps College, who said she was assaulted by Fairfax in 2004 during the Democratic National Convention.
“The details of Ms. Watson’s attack are similar to those described by Dr. Vanessa Tyson,” said the statement, released by Nancy Erika Smith, a New Jersey lawyer representing Watson. The statement described the rape as “premeditated and aggressive.”
The disclosure comes two days after Tyson issued a statement providing a detailed account of the episode with Fairfax. Her allegations deepened the political leadership crisis in Virginia, where the governor and attorney general are facing calls to resign after admitting in recent days that they donned blackface as younger men. Fairfax has denied he ever assaulted Tyson.
Karen Kessler, a spokeswoman for Watson, said in an interview that she is not planning on litigation or seeking financial compensation.
“She has been concerned and angered by what she’s been reading about another victim so she decided to tell her story,” said Kessler.
As Tyson’s allegations roiled Virginia politics this week, friends and colleagues of hers have come forward to support her. Two professors currently joining Tyson in a prestigious fellowship at Stanford told The New York Times that she recounted the episode with Fairfax to them last fall, saying he had sexually assaulted her.
“What she told us was pretty much exactly what was in the statement that she released but with vastly less detail,” said Dr. Elizabeth A. Armstrong.
Another fellow, Jennifer J. Freyd, a University of Oregon professor known for her work in sexual violence, also remembers the conversation, relaying how Tyson described how the incident was “clearly a traumatic experience.”
Fairfax has vigorously denied Tyson’s account.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.