Accusations of sexual misconduct and child molestation
In November 2017, multiple women made allegations of sexual misconduct against Roy Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and the Republican nominee in the U.S. Senate special election scheduled for the following month. Three women alleged that he had sexually assaulted them, two of whom were minors at the time while Moore was then in his 30s. Six other women recalled Moore pursuing romantic relationships or engaging in inappropriate or unwanted behavior with them while they were between the ages of 14 and 22.
Moore denied the allegations of sexual assault. On November 10, he acknowledged having known two of the women. Two weeks later, he said that he did "not know any of these women," and he "did not date any of these women" and had "not engaged in any sexual misconduct with anyone".
Prominent Republicans such as John McCain, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell called for Moore to drop out of the race after the allegations were reported. When these allegations were reported, it was too late for Moore's name to be removed from the ballot.
President Donald Trump, however, endorsed Moore and accepted his denials. Alabama Republicans largely defended Moore. The Republican National Committee initially cut ties with Moore after the allegations were reported but later restored funding to his campaign. Moore lost the Senate special election to Democratic candidate Doug Jones in what was considered an upset in the deeply Republican state. In the year following the allegations, no criminal charges were issued against Moore and the issue lost public attention.
One of the accusers, Leigh Corfman, filed a defamation lawsuit against Moore in January 2018 because he had said that her accusation was "false and malicious". Moore filed a defamation suit against Corfman and four others in April 2018. On August 13, 2022, Roy Moore was awarded $8.2 million in a defamation lawsuit against the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC by a jury trial; the case is currently on appeal.
Allegations of sexual assault.
Leigh Corfman.
On November 9, 2017, "The Washington Post" reported that Leigh Corfman alleged that Moore had initiated a sexual encounter with her in 1979, when she was 14 and he was 32 years old. Corfman said that Moore had met her and her mother when they were on business at the county courthouse. At the time he was in his 30s and working as an assistant district attorney. He offered to sit with Corfman in the hallway while her mother went into a courtroom to testify. Corfman said that during that time, he asked for her phone number, which she gave him. They later went on two dates: each time he picked her up around the corner from her house and drove her to his house. The first time he "told her how pretty she was and kissed her". On a second date, Moore allegedly "took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes ... touched her over her bra and underpants ... and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear". Corfman states that she did not feel comfortable with the situation and asked Moore to take her home, which he did.
Such sexual contact between Moore and a 14-year-old would have been a felony under Alabama law, and punishable by up to ten years in prison. In a November 2017 "Today Show" interview, Corfman said she is proud that telling her story has encouraged others to do the same.
In January 2018, Corfman filed a defamation lawsuit against Moore and against his Senate campaign, because he had said that her accusation was "false and malicious". In April 2018, Moore filed a defamation suit against Corfman and four others. In August 2021, an Alabama judge dismissed Corfman's lawsuit against his Senate campaign, ruling that she did not prove that Moore's campaign staff or volunteers had knowingly made false statements or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. In February 2022, a jury found neither side defamed the other.
Beverly Young Nelson.
Following the report about Corfman in "The Washington Post", Beverly Young Nelson, appearing with lawyer Gloria Allred, said she had received unwanted attention from Moore when she was 15 years old. Further, she said that in December 1977 or January 1978, when she was 16, Moore sexually assaulted her. Nelson said that she had accepted Moore's offer of a car ride after she finished work, trusting him "because he was the District Attorney". "Instead of driving to the street, he stopped the car, he parked his car in between the dumpster and the back of the restaurant, where there were no lights." ;ref name="Levy_11/13/2017" ; ;/ref ; Then "Mr. Moore reached over and began groping me and put his hand on my breast. I tried to get out and he reached over and locked (the door) and I yelled and told him to stop," Nelson said. She said Moore put his hand on her neck and tried to force her head down on his crotch. ;ref name="Gore_11/13/2017" ; ;/ref ; According to Nelson, Moore eventually gave up, telling her, "You're just a child, I'm the district attorney; if you tell anyone about this no one will ever believe you."
As evidence of her relationship with Moore, Nelson provided her high school yearbook, which included an entry by Moore, written about a week before the alleged assault. ;ref name="Gattis_11/13/2017" ; ;/ref ; Moore's entry reads: "To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say Merry Christmas. Christmas 1977. Love, Roy Moore, D.A." Moore's attorney requested that the yearbook be turned over to a "handwriting expert". In early December 2017, Nelson said that she had added the words "D.A. 12-22-77 Olde Hickory House" after this entry in the yearbook. Her attorney Allred said she had had a handwriting expert verify Moore's signature as genuine.
Allred said that she and Nelson would welcome an independent expert to view the message, so long as it was accompanied by a US Senate hearing. She repeated their request for Moore to testify about the incident under oath.
Nelson said that she had no further contact with Moore after the incident. After her accusations were reported, Phillip Jauregui, an attorney associated with Moore's campaign, disputed Nelson's allegations. He said that in 1999 Nelson did have contact with Moore, as he was the judge in her divorce proceedings that year. But ThinkProgress and WHNT-TV in Huntsville reported that a different judge handled the initial matters in Nelson's 1999 divorce proceeding. The case was dismissed later that year, before any hearing would have been held before Moore, as Nelson and her husband attempted to reconcile. Moore's only contact with the Nelson case was to have his assistant, Delbra Adams, stamp his signature on a motion to dismiss the case in August. According to ThinkProgress, there was no reason for Moore or Nelson to have encountered each other during the case. Nelson's lawyer in the 1999 case told WHNT that his review of his files showed no record of any hearing before Moore.
Moore's defenders said that the Olde Hickory House restaurant was not operating in 1977; Moore's wife posted such a denial on Facebook. But contemporary records document that it did exist in 1978, although they do not document that it actually existed, as Olde Hickory House, in 1977. ;ref name="Thornton_11/14/2017" ; ;/ref ;
Tina Johnson.
Tina Johnson said that she encountered Moore when she was 28. She said that he grabbed her buttocks while she was in his law office to sign documents transferring custody of her son to her mother in 1991. Johnson also said that Moore had commented on her looks, making her feel uncomfortable.
Attempt to plant false report in "The Washington Post".
On November 27, 2017, "The Washington Post" reported that a woman had approached them with a claim that Moore impregnated her at the age of 15 in 1992, and that she had an abortion afterward. "Post" staff became suspicious after their fact-checking found that some of her statements were inconsistent or false. The woman was later seen at the New York office of Project Veritas, an organization that targets and attempts to entrap the mainstream news media and left-leaning groups. Also, "Post" reporters discovered a GoFundMe page on which someone with the same name as the woman said, "I've accepted a job to work in the conservative media movement to combat the lies and deceipt ["sic"] of the liberal MSM." The "Post" concluded, and reported, that the woman had been part of an undercover sting operation intended to discredit the paper by getting it to publish a false report.
In 2018, the "Post" was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for its coverage of the allegations against Moore, including its exposé of the unsuccessful Project Veritas sting.
Allegations of sexual harassment.
Becky Gray.
Becky Gray said she was 22 and working in the men's department of Pizitz in the Gadsden Mall in 1977 when Moore "started coming up to" her. He repeatedly asked her out and she repeatedly rejected his dating offers. She said she "thought he was 'old'". Gray complained to her store manager after becoming disturbed by Moore's advances.
Alleged mall ban.
Phyllis Smith, who worked at the Gadsden Mall, said that she had seen Moore talking to other young clerks, although he did not approach her. She said, "I can remember him walking in and the whole mood would change with us girls ... It would be like we were on guard ... I remember being creeped out." Smith warned others to "watch out for this guy".
On November 13, "The New Yorker" quoted multiple local former police officers and mall employees who had heard that Roy Moore had been banned from the Gadsden Mall in the early 1980s for attempting to pick up teenage girls. An Alabama woman said that Moore was banned from the mall in the late 1970s after she reported to her manager that he was sexually harassing her. Local news channel WBRC interviewed Barnes Boyle, a manager of the mall from 1981 to 1998, who said that, to his knowledge, Moore was not banned. The Moore campaign produced two other witnesses, a longtime mall employee and the Operations Manager overseeing mall security, both of whom said that he was never banned from the mall.
Faye Gray, a retired detective, said that she had heard that Moore had been banned from the Gadsden Mall, and that she and fellow officers were told to ensure "that he didn't hang around the cheerleaders."
Other assertions about dating history.
Gena Richardson.
In November 2017, Gena Richardson, a registered Republican, was reported as saying that Moore had started pursuing her when she was a senior in high school, near her 18th birthday. Richardson stated that Moore approached her when she was working in Sears at the Gadsden Mall and asked for her phone number. According to Richardson, after she refused to give Moore her number, Moore called her at her high school to ask her out on a date. Richardson said that she eventually did agree to a date and, when she started to get out of his car, "he grabbed [her] and pulled [her] in and ... kissed [her]." Richardson said the kiss scared her and described it as "a man kiss — like really deep tongue. Like very forceful tongue. It was a surprise." Richardson's account was corroborated by classmate and Sears co-worker Kayla McLaughlin.
Other women.
Debbie Wesson Gibson has asserted that she and Moore dated in the spring of 1981, when she was 17 and Moore was 34. After Moore denied the relationship, she provided a signed postcard from Moore congratulating her on her graduation from high school.
Gloria Thacker Deason says that she dated the then 32-year-old Moore for several months when she was 18 in 1979, after having met him at the Gadsden Mall. She said that during their dates, he provided bottles of Mateus Rosé wine and tropical cocktails, although the legal drinking age in Alabama at the time was 19.
Kelly Harrison Thorp claimed that Moore asked her on a date in 1982, when she was 17 years of age. She declined. According to Thorp, Moore told her that he dated young women her age "all the time". Thorp has said that she knows Corfman and believes her allegations.
Wendy Miller has said that Moore asked her on dates while she was working at Gadsden Mall as