Incoming Missouri State Rep Just Accused Her Future Colleague Of Rape

“I felt a moral responsibility to speak out,” Cora Faith Walker said.
The Missouri state capitol building in Jefferson City, Missouri.
The Missouri state capitol building in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Education Images via Getty Images

Incoming Missouri State Representative Cora Faith Walker has publicly accused Steven Roberts Jr., a fellow incoming representative, of raping her this past August.

“My name is Cora Faith Walker. I will be in the Capitol in January as the Representative of the 74th District. Earlier this week, I reported a sexual assault to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,” Walker wrote in a letter on Sept. 30. “I named my rapist as Steven Roberts Jr., who hopes to be in the Capitol in January as the Representative of the 77th District.”

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Walker, a 31-year-old Ferguson lawyer, wrote the letter to Republican Speaker of the House Todd Richardson, Minority Floor Leader Jake Hummel and Assistant Minority Floor Leader Gail McCann-Beatty. Walker asked the three not to swear Roberts in until the investigation into his alleged crimes is over.

While Roberts has not been arrested or charged with a crime, the Post-Dispatch confirmed with two “highly placed law enforcement sources” that Roberts is being investigated.

Both Walker and Roberts are black Democratic candidates who are running unopposed for seats in the Missouri legislature this November. Once sworn in, the two will be the only black lawyers in the overwhelmingly white and Republican legislature, according to CBS News.

Walker told the Post-Dispatch’s Tony Messenger that she went over to Roberts apartment on Aug. 26 to discuss how they could work together in their new roles. She said she arrived at Roberts’ apartment around 9:30 pm and had two glasses of wine. Walker told the Post-Dispatch that she woke up the next morning in Roberts’ bed and remembers nothing after her second glass of wine.

“I had no recollection of why I was still there,” she said.

Although Walker has chosen to keep the details of the alleged assault private until the police report is made publicly available, she believes that Roberts assaulted her while she was asleep either on the night of Aug. 26 or the morning of Aug. 27.

Read Walker’s letter, which the Post-Dispatch reprinted in full, to Richardson, Hummel and McCann-Beatty below.

Walker told her husband what had happened the next morning, and filed a report with the police a few weeks later. “I felt a moral responsibility to speak out,” Walker told the Post-Dispatch. “The idea or the thought of me trying to just bury it is one I could not live with.”

On Monday evening, Roberts released a full statement through his lawyer Scott Rosenblum. Roberts claims that Walker’s accusations are “completely and unequivocally false,” citing that the two had been “intimate” before that night in August. (Though to be clear, it is still possible to rape a person one has been “intimate” with beforehand.)

Read his full statement below:

Cora Faith Walker’s accusation is completely and unequivocally false.

I have strong and indisputable evidence that documents the consensual nature of our encounter in August.

There are a number of other facts and details that make my case, but I cannot release them at this time due to the ongoing investigation.

Mrs. Walker and I had been intimate in the past before August, and our contact had been increasing over the last year as we campaigned for our respective offices. Mrs. Walker and I were in contact at a conference in Kansas City, on Thursday, August 25th.

On Friday, August 26th in St. Louis, Mrs. Walker was at my apartment and all of our interactions were absolutely consensual.

Mrs. Walker’s letter to legislative leaders a few days ago makes an unbelievable statement that she, an attorney and married woman, went to another man’s apartment at 9:30 pm on a Friday night for strictly a business meeting. We actually arrived together to my apartment closer to 11:00 pm. While I am not proud of this situation, it was entirely consensual and I did nothing illegal.

This has been extremely humiliating for me and my family, but what is most abhorrent is that Mrs. Walker has made false allegations which undermine the need for swift justice for the growing number of victims of rape and sexual assault in this country.

I am confident that once all of the facts are presented my name will be cleared and I will be vindicated entirely.

Walker denied Roberts claims, and responded with her own statement later Monday night. She told CBS’ St. Louis KMOX public radio that Roberts’ words are an example of “exactly why victims and survivors of sexual assault don’t come forward.”

In her original letter to Richardson, Hummel and McCann-Beatty, Walker noted that she is “not the first woman to accuse Mr. Roberts of sexual assault.”

In April 2015, a female college student accused Roberts of sexual assault and he was arrested on suspicion of second-degree sodomy. The then-27-year-old Roberts was not charged by prosecutors and was later released. Roberts attorneys at the time claimed the allegations were “unfounded.”

In October 2015, Roberts was fired from his job as a St. Louis assistant circuit attorney. The office made a statement that Roberts was fired due to “poor performance.”

On Saturday, Speaker of the House Todd Richardson released a statement in response to the claims made in Walker’s letter to CBS’ St. Louis KMOX public radio, writing that there will be a “zero tolerance policy for sexual assault.”

“… The kind of conduct alleged cannot be tolerated in our state and will not be tolerated in the House of Representatives,” Richardson wrote. He added that while the House has no jurisdiction over non-members such as Roberts and Walker because they have not taken office yet, the House will “monitor” the investigation closely and “continue to have a zero tolerance policy for sexual assault, misconduct and harassment.”

Missouri House Leaders Hummel and McCann-Beatty also released a joint statement, hinting that it might be better for Roberts to step down from his seat in the House of Representatives.

“Cora Faith Walker has shown great courage in publicly seeking justice for the assault against her. It is vitally important for the legal system to diligently pursue this matter to an appropriate resolution,” the statement reads. “As the situation develops in the coming weeks, the accused must determine whether attempting to serve in the Missouri House of Representatives under these circumstances is in the best interests of himself, his family and his constituents.”

As the Post-Dispatch’s Messenger described in a recent article, Walker’s accusations are just one part of a larger trend of inappropriate sexual conduct in Missouri politics.

The investigation, and the letter from Walker to Richardson, comes during a precarious time in Missouri’s capital city. Richardson took over leadership in the House after the former speaker, Rep. John Diehl, R-Town and Country, resigned in disgrace after sending salacious text messages to an intern. Sen. Paul LeVota, D-Independence, also resigned in 2015 after being accused of sexual harassment by interns. In 2016, after Richardson vowed to clean up the sexist culture of the Capitol, Rep. Don Gosen, R-Wildwood, resigned his position after admitting to an affair.

Walker told the Post-Dispatch that she came forward with the hope of helping other victims of sexual assault.

“The odds are against me. But I know what happened to me,” she said. “And I know I don’t want it to happen to anybody else. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But it’s OK to speak up. It’s OK to be afraid.”

CORRECTION: The article has been updated to show that it was Roberts’ attorneys who said the claim was “unfounded,” not the prosecution. The article has been updated to show that Roberts’ attorneys said the claim was “unfounded.”

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