In an expansive account to The Washington Post, a woman is accusing U.S. Senate nominee Roy Moore of initiating a sexual encounter with her when she was just 14-years-old.
According to Leigh Corfman, Moore first approached her in 1979 outside a courtroom in Alabama and struck up a conversation with her and her mother. When her mother had to go inside for court matter, Moore offered to watch Corfman. “He said, ‘Oh, you don’t want her to go in there and hear all that. I’ll stay out here with her,'” recalls Corfman’s mother, 71-year-old Nancy Wells. “I thought, how nice for him to want to take care of my little girl.”
After chatting her up and getting her phone number, Corfman says Moore picked her up from her house and drove her to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was, and kissed her.
On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.
“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she remembers thinking. She says she then asked Moore to drive her home, which he did.
Along with her mother, Corfman’s story is confirmed by two of her childhood friends, who said that they remember her telling them that she was seeing an older man. One friend says she remembers Corfman identifying the man as Moore, who was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney at the time. In addition, three other women interviewed by The Washington Post have their own stories about Moore, saying he pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his 30s, “episodes they say they found flattering at the time, but troubling as they got older.” Neither of them say he forced them into any kind of sexual relationship.
Leigh Corfman, left, (photo from 1979) says Roy Moore tried to have sex with her when she was about 14. Other women (from top) such as Wendy Miller (at around 16), Debbie Wesson Gibson (at around 17) and Gloria Thacker Deason (at around 18), say he pursued them. pic.twitter.com/6SpwikgSQl
— Sky Palma (@DeadStateTweets) November 9, 2017
Moore has denied the allegations in a written statement.
“These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,” Moore said according to WaPo.
Corfman, who is now 53, said she considered coming forward with the allegations sooner, but decided against it for fear of how the fallout would affect her children. She was also worried that her history of three failed marriages and financial trouble would undermine her credibility.
Corfman described her story consistently in six interviews with The Post. The Post confirmed that her mother attended a hearing at the courthouse in February 1979 through divorce records. Moore’s office was down the hall from the courtroom.
Moore has made headlines with his stark right-wing views when it comes to social issues and science. He’s likened homosexuality to bestiality and says it should be illegal. He’s suggested that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks were God’s retribution on America. He once told The Washington Post that there is “no such thing as evolution.” He’s also been a proponent of the fraudulent conspiracy theory that claims Barack Obama was actually born in Kenya.
“All I know is that I can’t sit back and let this continue, let him continue without the mask being removed,” Corfman said.
You can read The Washington Post’s full report here.
Featured image via YouTube
