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Count Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax City, among the Democratic lawmakers who don’t want a public hearing in the General Assembly on the sexual assault allegations against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax.

“I understand these allegations are made. I understand that some people think that they should be believed, for whatever reason, and I respect that. To me personally I don’t know what happened so I’m just not going to draw any conclusions,” Petersen said Tuesday on John Fredericks’ radio show.

“But the General Assembly — we need to be about representing the people of Virginia, not trying to figure out what happened in some bar in 2004. That’s just my opinion.”

California professor Vanessa Tyson has alleged that Fairfax, a Democrat, sexually assaulted her in a hotel room in Boston in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention. Meredith Watson, who was a classmate of Fairfax’s at Duke University, has said Fairfax raped her in 2000.

Fairfax, who is considering running for governor in 2021, has denied the allegations, has said they are lies designed to derail his political career, and has written letters to prosecutors in Massachusetts and North Carolina asking for criminal investigations.