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Gloria Allred comforts Beverly Nelson at a press conference
in New York City on Monday. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
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Roy Moore speaks in Vestavia Hills, Ala., on Saturday. (AP
Photo/Hal Yeager)
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A woman says Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore
sexually assaulted her when she was a minor.
Beverly Young Nelson said Monday that the alleged incident
occurred in 1977, when she was a 16-year-old waitress in a Gadsden, Ala.,
restaurant where Moore was a regular customer and would often flirt with her.
A week or two later, Nelson said, she was waiting to get a
ride home from work from her boyfriend, who was late, when Moore offered to
drive her. Nelson said that Moore groped her in his car without her consent.
When she told him to stop, Nelson said Moore squeezed the back of her neck and
tried to force her head “onto his crotch.”
“I was terrified,” Nelson said in a detailed statement
delivered at a press conference in New York City, where she was introduced to
reporters by her lawyer, Gloria Allred. “I thought that he was going to rape
me.”
Nelson said that at some point Moore gave up and warned her
not to tell anyone about the encounter.
“He then looked at me and said, ‘You are a child. I am the
district attorney,'” Nelson recalled. “If you tell anyone about this, no one will
believe you.”
A spokesman for Moore’s campaign did not immediately return
a request for comment, but Moore has fiercely denied previous accusations.
Nelson said that she met Moore when she was a 15-year-old
waitress at the restaurant. On Dec. 22, 1977, Nelson said that she brought her
high school yearbook to work, and Moore asked her to sign it.
“To a sweeter, more
beautiful girl, I could not say a more Merry Christmas,” Moore allegedly wrote
in Nelson’s yearbook, signing it: “Love, Roy Moore D.A.”
She showed the page to reporters at the press conference.
Nelson is the fifth woman to accuse Moore of sexual
misconduct. She said she was inspired to come forward by Moore’s other
accusers.
“If I thought I was Mr. Moore’s only victim, I probably
would have taken my secret to my grave,” Nelson said. “Mr. Moore no longer has
any power over me, and I will no longer live in fear.”
Allred, who represented some of the women who accused
President Trump and Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct or assault, called for a
Senate hearing on the allegations. Nelson, Allred said, is willing to testify
under oath.
On Thursday, the Washington Post published its bombshell
report quoting a woman, Leigh Corfman, who alleged that in 1979, when she was
14 and Moore was 32 , Moore partially undressed her and himself, touched her
over her undergarments and guided her hand to touch him. The age of consent in
Alabama was then and continues to be 16.
The story also quoted three other women who said Moore hit
on them when they were 16 to 18 and he was in his 30s. Moore initially
dismissed the entire report as “fake news” and an attack by “the Democratic
Party and the country’s most liberal newspaper.” On Friday, Moore denied even
knowing Corfman, who told the Post she was with her mother when she met him.
Her mother, Nancy Wells, confirmed her daughter’s account.
On Sunday, a defiant Moore told supporters that said he
intends to sue the newspaper, and questioned the timing of the accusations.
“These attacks said I was with a minor child and are false
and untrue — and for which they will be sued,” Moore said. “Why would they come
now? Because there are groups that don’t want me in the United States’ Senate.”
“We do not plan to let anybody deter us from this race,” he
added.
Moore’s wife, Kayla, dismissed suggested his accusers were
part of a concerted smear campaign.
“This is the same Gloria Allred that did the very exact
thing to Trump during his campaign,” she wrote in a Facebook post on Monday morning.
“Going on two months now they’ve been on a witch hunt here.”
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., chairman of the National
Republican Senatorial Committee, said the Senate should vote to expel Moore
should he refuse to withdraw from the race.
“I believe the individuals speaking out against Roy Moore
spoke with courage and truth, proving he is unfit to serve in the United States
Senate,” Gardner said in a statement. “If he refuses to withdraw and wins, the
Senate should vote to expel him, because he does not meet the ethical and moral
requirements of the United States Senate.”
Earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said
that he believes the accusations in the Post report are true and that Moore
should step aside.
“I believe the women, yes,” said McConnell, who backed
Moore’s GOP challenger, Luther Strange, in the primary.
Moore responded via Twitter.
Moore and Democratic candidate Doug Jones are vying to the
U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he was appointed attorney
general by President Trump. The special election is scheduled for Dec. 12.
Trump, who also backed Luther Strange, has yet to comment
publicly on the allegations against Moore. Last week, White House press
secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One that the president
“believes that we cannot allow a mere allegation — in this case, one from many
years ago — to destroy a person’s life.”
“However, the president also believes that if these
allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside,”
Sanders added. “Regardless, the president must and will remain focused on
representing our country on his historic trip to Asia where he has been treated
with great respect and made unprecedented progress in further strengthening
alliances and promoting America’s interests above all else.”
On Sunday, White House officials said they were disturbed by
the allegations but cautioned against a rush to judgment against the Senate
hopeful.
“I think that there’s a special place in hell for those who
actually perpetrate these crimes,” White House director of legislative affairs
Marc Short said on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC. “And I think Roy Moore has
to do more explaining than he has done so far.”
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