Meredith Watson, the woman who accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of raping her is also leveling that same charge at Corey Maggette, a former NBA player. The incident allegedly happened during his one season at Duke, according to a report on Monday evening from the New York Times.
Maggette was a member of the Blue Devils during the 1998-99 season, playing in the national title game before heading to the NBA. He spent 14 seasons in the league. He currently works as an analyst for Fox Sports, but was pulled from the Clippers broadcast tonight.
The Times report says Watson told two different people about the alleged assault by Maggette. One was a friend from her hometown in Baltimore who confirmed the story to the Times on the record.
R. Stanton Jones, a partner at the law firm Arnold & Porter in Washington who grew up with Watson in Baltimore, said she told him that she had been raped by Maggette. She told Jones about it while he and Watson were both home for the summer in 2001, he said.
“Meredith told me she had been raped twice at Duke,” Mr. Jones said. “And she told me that one of the men who raped her was the Duke basketball player Corey Maggette. That was a name I knew because I’m a basketball fan.”
The paper was also provided with FaceBook messages between the accuser and an unidentified friend in which the accuser stated that she did not report Fairfax for rape “after how the university responded when I reported Corey Maggette.”
“It has only been through media accounts and a statement from Meredith Watson’s lawyer that I first learned or heard of anything about these sexual assault allegations,” Maggette said in a statement released to the Times. “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my life and I completely and categorically deny any such charge.”
These accusations were made on Friday as a result of a scandal that has created a political crisis in the state of Virginia.
After Duke’s win over Virginia on Saturday evening, the following statement was released by athletic director Kevin White: “Duke first learned of the allegations involving a student-athlete last night when they were reported by the media. Coach Krzyzewski confirms that he had no knowledge of the alleged conduct from 1999. The university is looking into the matter and will have no further comment at this time.”
