ST. LOUIS – Steve Roberts Jr. filed a suit against Cora Faith Walker Thursday afternoon after Walker accused Roberts of raping her in September. Both Roberts and Walker are incoming Democratic state representatives without general election opponents.
The legal action comes just two days after St. Charles Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar said they would not file charges against Roberts due to a lack of evidence that any incident that occurred between the two that was not consensual. Walker had requested that Speaker Todd Richardson not permit Roberts to sit on the House floor when she first made the allegations.
Roberts says that his lawsuit will clear his name of any wrongdoing.
“For the past month, I have stood by watching as Mrs. Walker made false allegations against me over and over again,” Roberts said in a statement. “This suit explains the facts of what actually happened that night. The public deserves to know the truth and the only way to do that is to show the facts.”
The suit charges Walker with a count each of defamation, malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress and one alternate count of unintentional infliction of emotional distress.
It also details Roberts’ retelling of events that appear to show a burgeoning sexual, but consensual, relationship beginning on Aug. 25 at a meeting of the Democratic Summer Caucus in Kansas City. The triste continued, according to the suit, the next night in St. Louis with an evening in where the Roberts and Walker bought shopped for items, including condoms. The receipt of that shopping trip, which includes a pack of Trojan condoms, is submitted as evidence in the case.
Also submitted to evidence was a correspondence of text messages between the two, but nothing written in those messages suggests that the two had a sexual relationship. In fact, Walker did not respond to several messages from Roberts on the day of Aug. 27, the day after she claimed to have been raped.
Roberts and his attorney in the case, Jeremy Hollingshead, said that Walker has lied to promote her own political career at the Roberts’ expense. Hollingshead said he had a history defending rape victims and that he found Walker’s allegations were “revolting.”
“As a newly elected representative for the citizens of St. Louis, Mrs. Walker’s false allegations of rape are, to say the least, disturbing,” Hollingshead said. “In an attempt to advance her own political career, Mrs. Walker has severely damaged the rights of the many actual victims of sexual assault. As a representative of the people, Mrs. Walker should know better.”
“What is most egregious is that Mrs. Walker has falsely positioned herself as an advocate for sexual assault victims,” Roberts said. “Victims do not lie. By making these false allegations, Mrs. Walker has undermined the true victims of sexual assault who deserve to be heard and believed.”
The Missouri Times has not yet reached Walker for comment.
This is a developing story and more details will be added as they become available.
