Seattle woman publicly accuses Washington Sen. Joe Fain of rape

Seattle resident Candace Faber followed Thursday’s Senate hearings featuring Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford. She tweeted commentary throughout the hearing, pointing out that being a good student doesn’t mean someone can’t be guilty of sexual assault. Same goes if they have female friends. Then she notes that Blasey Ford has been criticized for waiting so long to bring her story forward.

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That’s when she wrote “maybe the rest of us shouldn’t sit on our secrets just crossing our fingers that they won’t come into more power.” She presented her own allegation — that Washington State Senator Joe Fain raped her in 2007.

So okay, let’s do it. @senatorfain, you raped me the night I graduated from Georgetown in 2007. Then you had the audacity to ask me to support your campaign. I’ve been terrified of running into you since moving home and seeing your name everywhere.

I’m done being silent.

— Candace Faber (@candacefaber) September 27, 2018

In a statement to The Seattle Times, Senator Fain has denied Faber’s allegation, but also said that such accusations are serious and should be investigated. He said he would cooperate with any inquiry. He asked that people show respect to Faber and the process.

Fain is a 37-year-old Republican member of the Washington State Senate, representing the 47th Legislative District (Auburn, Covington, Federal Way, Kent, Renton). He is minority floor leader. He was first elected in 2011 and is currently running for re-election.

Faber, 35, has also drawn local headlines in the past, though for her career. She was Seattle’s first civic technology advocate and has been looked to as an expert and critic of Seattle tech issues. She worked at the City of Seattle’s IT department until recently. She is also a guest faculty member at the University of Washington, and her online resume states she was a foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State between 2007 and 2013.

Sen. Joe Fain allegations

In a statement published on Medium, Faber conveys her reason for bringing the allegation against Fain forward. But she provided little details around the allegation. Faber said she was inspired by Blasey Ford’s Thursday testimony in Washington D.C. and that the decision was made in the moment, without consulting legal counsel.

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She also notes that she has spoken and written publicly in the past about a sexual assault that happened to her, but she has never revealed the assailant’s name.

Until recently, I withheld my rapist’s name, even in private conversations. I hoped that I could help change the culture of sexual assault without needing to say his name. I no longer believe that to be the case. We cannot heal without accountability.

Like Dr. Ford, I can no longer remain silent knowing that the man who raped me is in a position to influence the laws that govern my state and impact every woman who lives here. I do not believe that survivors have a civic duty to speak out. I believe that we have a civic duty to believe survivors.

Throughout our history, women who have spoken up about sexual assault have been threatened, defamed, gaslighted, had their character and sanity called into question, and been blocked from opportunities. It is time for that to change.

Faber also wrote on Twitter that she has left rooms when Fain’s name was mentioned and that she is “done being scared.”

In another post published on Medium in June, Faber does not name Fain as she describes the rape incident. But she does say that the man who raped her serves in the Washington State Legislature. She writes at the time: “I do not aim to take legal action  — I believe we need a collective reckoning, not imprisonment of individuals, to achieve justice  —  but I have found that validation and solidarity with other survivors matters.”

In the June post, Faber relates an account of a night out drinking and kissing a man. She helps him to his hotel room. While he stumbled intoxicated to the room, once inside, he picks her up and pins her to the bed and rips off her clothes. Among the details of this incident, Faber notes that she said “stop, stop, stop.” But she believes the man liked it when she fought back.

After the alleged rape, she says the man went to the restroom to throw up and acted tired. He implied he was too drunk and asked her to pack his luggage for him so he could be more prepared to leave the next day. She complies and then leaves, first asking for a kiss goodnight.

“Shut up for just one ******* second about that’s not how girls act when they’ve been raped, or whatever,” she writes. “You don’t ******* know.”

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