New Roy Moore Accuser Says He Sexually Assaulted Her When She Was 16

Woman says then-district attorney Moore groped her and attempted “to force my head onto his crotch”

Roy Moore Gun Alabama Senate race
CNN

Senate candidate Roy Moore, who recently has been besieged by allegations of sexual misconduct, was hit with accusations from a new accuser Monday, with a woman telling reporters that Moore assaulted her when she a 16-year-old in Alabama.

Speaking at a press conference in New York with her attorney Gloria Allred, Beverly Young Nelson detailed the alleged assault, which according to Allred, took place when Moore was a district attorney in Alabama.

According to Nelson, she first encountered Moore when she was 15 and working as a waitress at a restaurant that Moore frequented, coming in “almost every night.” Nelson said that Moore would sometimes pull the ends of her long hair as she walked by and would compliment her on her looks, but she “did nothing to encourage his flirtatious behavior,” as she had a boyfriend and, even if she didn’t, she had no interest in a sexual or dating relationship with a man twice her age.

Nelson told reporters that, one night when she was 16, she was waiting in the cold for her boyfriend to drive her home, and Moore offered her a ride. Nelson accepted, but said that, instead of driving her home, Moore drove behind the restaurant and parked in a darkened area.

“Mr. Moore reached over and began groping me … putting his hands on my breasts,” Nelson said. “I tried fighting him off while yelling at him to stop.”

Rather than stopping, Nelson said, Moore began squeezing her neck, “attempting to force my head onto his crotch.”

She continued, “He was also trying to pull my shirt off. I thought he was going to rape me.”

Eventually Moore gave up, Nelson said, and told her that “if you tell anyone about this, no one will ever believe you.”

“Gloria Allred is a sensationalist leading a witch hunt, and she is only around to create a spectacle,” Moore’s Campaign Chairman Bill Armistead said. “Allred was the attorney who claims credit for giving us Roe v. Wade which has resulted in the murder of tens of millions of unborn babies.”

Armistead continued, “We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: Judge Moore is an innocent man and has never had any sexual misconduct with anyone. 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.”

In a Washington Post story published last week, Leigh Corfman said that Moore initiated a sexual encounter in Alabama when she was 14 and Moore was 32. The Post also relayed accusations from three other women who said that Moore dated them in their teens.

Moore denied the allegations in a statement to the Post, calling them a “desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign.”

Watch video from the press conference below.

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