Another Woman Says Roy Moore Sexually Assaulted Her As A Teen
“He told me, ‘You’re just a child.’ And he said, ‘I am the district attorney of Etowah County, and if you tell anyone about this, no one will ever believe you.’”
Another woman has come forward to say that Alabama Republican Roy Moore sexually abused her when she was a teen and he was more than a decade older.
Beverly Young Nelson, who is represented by attorney Gloria Allred, told her story at a New York press conference on Monday.
Nelson,
who met Moore through her job as a waitress, recalled an incident in
which Moore offered to give her a ride home one night in 1977. But
instead of taking her home, she said, he drove around the restaurant to a
deserted area and assaulted her.
“I thought that he was going to rape me,” Nelson said. At the time, she was 16 and he was in his 30s.
After a struggle, Nelson said, Moore let her go with a threat.
“He
looked at me, and he told me, ‘You’re just a child.’ And he said, ‘I am
the district attorney of Etowah County, and if you tell anyone about
this, no one will ever believe you,’” she added.
The passenger door was still open as he burned rubber pulling away, leaving me laying there on the cold concrete in the dark. Beverly Young Nelson
Nelson
described how Moore groped her breasts and grabbed her neck, leaving it
“black and blue and purple,” as he tried to force her head toward his
crotch.
“I was begging him to stop,” she said. “I had tears running down my face.”
Nelson
said she eventually either fell or was pushed out of the vehicle. “The
passenger door was still open as he burned rubber pulling away leaving
me laying there on the cold concrete in the dark,” she said.
Moore
had been a regular customer at the restaurant where Nelson worked, she
said, and used to sit in the same seat “night after night” until the
establishment closed ― occasionally remarking on her appearance. One
week prior to the incident, Nelson said, Moore left a note in a high
school yearbook she had left on the counter.
“To
a sweeter, more beautiful girl, I could not say ‘Merry
Christmas,’” read the note, which Moore had signed, “Love, Roy Moore
D.A.”
A
representative for Moore responded to news of the press conference with
a personal attack against Allred, calling her a “sensationalist leading
a witch hunt” in a statement that also referenced the attorney’s role
in abortion policy.
“Judge Moore is an innocent man and has never had any sexual misconduct with anyone,” the statement read.
“This is a witch hunt against a man who has had an impeccable career
for over 30 years and has always been known as a man of high character.”
Moore also denied the allegations during a brief press conference Monday evening.
“This
is absolutely false, I never did what she said I did. I don’t even know
the woman, I don’t know anything about her, I don’t know where the
restaurant is or was,” Moore said. “This is a political maneuver and has
nothing to do with reality, it’s all about politics.”
Moore declined to answer reporters’ questions following his statement.
Allred
stated that her firm corroborated Nelson’s story with her mother, her
sister and her husband. The attorney, known for defending feminist
causes in high-profile cases, called on the U.S. Senate Judiciary
Committee to hold a public hearing to address the allegations against
Moore, adding that her client would be available to testify under oath.
Nelson
said she waited so long to speak up because she was afraid, saying she
“felt that Mr. Moore would do something to me or my family.”
The Alabama resident joins four women who went on record with damaging allegations against the U.S. Senate hopeful in a Washington Post report published last week.
In the most serious accusation, Leigh Corfman said Moore sexually assaulted her in 1979, when she was 14.
Moore
was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney in Alabama when,
according to Corfman, he approached her and asked for her phone number.
Corfman said he later brought her to a wooded area, where he kissed her
and touched her over her underwear, guiding her to touch him as well.
Three
other women told the Post that Moore pursued them when they were
between the ages of 16 and 18. Wendy Miller said she was 14 when she
first met Moore and 16 when he asked her out, but added that she didn’t
go on any dates with him. Debbie Wesson Gibson said she briefly dated
Moore at age 17 and that the relationship did not go beyond
kissing. Gloria Thacker Deason was 18 years old, one year below
Alabama’s legal drinking age at the time, when Moore began taking her on
alcohol-infused dates, she said.
In response to the report, the Senate’s campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, severed its ties with Moore on Friday.
Yet only a handful of Republicans have voiced criticism individually and pulled their support of Moore.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was one of the first politicians
to say definitively that the Alabama candidate was not fit to serve in
the Senate. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who was the
Republican presidential nominee in 2012, tweeted that “innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections,” and that Moore is “unfit for office.”
After suggesting he needed more information before passing judgment, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that
he “believe[s] the women” and that Moore should step aside. Meanwhile,
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Mike Lee
(R-Utah) rescinded their endorsements.
It’s
unclear what effect the mounting accusations will have, as many
Republicans in the Senate have said they would only denounce Moore if the women’s stories are proven to be true.
Nelson said coming forward was not about politics.
“My
husband and I supported Donald Trump for President,” she said
Monday. “This has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats. It has
everything to do with Mr. Moore’s sexual assault when I was a teenager.”
This article has been updated with comments from Moore’s press conference on Monday.
