A woman accusing Democratic Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault spoke out for the first time on Monday.
A tearful Vanessa Tyson sat down with Gayle King on “CBS This Morning,” and explained how the alleged incident made her feel “ashamed.”
Tyson accused Fairfax in February of forcing her to perform oral sex on him when they were both staffers at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. Tyson is currently a professor at Stanford University. (RELATED: Justin Fairfax Employer Puts Him On Leave After Multiple Sexual Assault Allegations)
WATCH: Vanessa Tyson, a politics professor, claims Virginia’s lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax assaulted her during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.
Some of the details she shared with @GayleKing are disturbing. https://t.co/e6bPJdK5cE pic.twitter.com/Gn8gHf1N64
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) April 1, 2019
“I was so ashamed. I was so humiliated on so many levels,” she said.
“I couldn’t hold my head up,” Tyson said, describing the alleged assault. “He’s using his hand on the back of my neck, and I still didn’t know what was going on. ”
“I honestly didn’t know what was going on,” Tyson continued. “I couldn’t say anything because I was choking and gagging.”
Tyson also called for Fairfax to resign, echoing calls from politicians from both sides of the aisle. (RELATED: Fairfax Staffers Resign Amid Sexual Assault Allegations)
“It should never be a partisan issue,” she said.
Fairfax has refused to resign, and on Sunday claimed to have passed a polygraph test that proves his innocence.
“Lt. Governor Fairfax has also been steadfast from the start in saying that a serious, fair, and impartial investigation and examination of the facts would demonstrate that these allegations are false and that he engaged in no wrongdoing whatsoever,” his office said in a statement.