Woman accusing Virginia lieutenant governor of rape has also accused a former NBA player

Meredith Watson, one of the women who has accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault, previously reported that a former NBA player raped her while she was in college at Duke University, according to The New York Times.

Watson has reportedly told friends that she was raped by Corey Maggette, who played basketball at Duke in 1998-99. Watson claims Fairfax raped her while the two attended Duke. According to his LinkedIn page, Fairfax was at Duke from 1996 through 2000.

Fairfax has already denied any rape allegations. Maggette, through a spokesman, denied Watson's allegation on Monday.

"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's statement said. "I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my life and I completely and categorically deny any such charge."

About the Maggette allegation

A friend of Watson's, R. Stanton Jones, said Watson told him in 2001 that Maggette raped her, and also that she had been raped one other time.

"Meredith told me she had been raped twice at Duke," Jones said, according to The Times. "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."

Watson's lawyer also showed The Times a series of Facebook messages from March 2017 discussing the rape. The Times reported that it could not independently verify that the messages were authentic.

Watson allegedly reported the rape but was discouraged from pursuing the allegation. Duke has confirmed that it is currently investigating the allegation in light of the recent report.

"We are in the process of gathering information to determine what policies and procedures were in place during the time period in which these events are alleged to have occurred, and whether they were activated and followed," said Duke spokesman Michael Schoenfeld.