A Seattle woman has charged South King County State Sen. Joe Fain with raping her eleven years ago on the night she graduated from Georgetown University in Washington D.C., an allegation Fain strongly denied.

Fain also called for an investigation.

The allegation was covered in the Friday (Sept. 28) issue of The Seattle Times and picked up by a number of other media and online sources.

The Times reported that Candace Faber tweeted about Fain on Thursday afternoon, and later issued a statement saying “we cannot heal without accountability.” The tweet came after hours of televised testimony on sexual-assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

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

The Times also reported that Faber had previously written a post about being assaulted by someone serving in the Washington state Legislature, but did not include a name (her Medium blog is here).

In that earlier account, posted online in June, she described how she and the lawmaker met “at the Capitol” and spent a night out drinking and kissing. She wrote that she helped the drunken man return to his hotel room. In the room, she wrote, he pulled down her dress “so hard the straps tore.”

She wrote that she pushed him away and said “stop, stop, stop” before eventually relenting. She later asked him for a kiss goodbye, she wrote, and wondered whether she should go to the hospital.

Fain, a Republican from Auburn, denied Faber’s account in a text message to The Seattle Times:

“I absolutely deny what Ms. Faber is accusing me of,” Fain told the Times. “Any allegation of this serious nature deserves to be heard and investigated for all parties involved. I invite and will cooperate with any inquiry. I ask everyone to show respect to Ms. Faber and to the process.”

Neither Faber nor Fain were available for interviews Thursday, said the Times.

She wrote that she pushed him away and said “stop, stop, stop” before eventually relenting. She later asked him for a kiss goodbye, she wrote, and wondered whether she should go to the hospital.

Fain was first elected to the state Senate in 2010 and was re-elected to a second term in 2014, and is on the ballot for reelection this November.