Former judge and Senate candidate, Roy Moore is suing his accusers over his election loss, claiming that they conspired with lies to prevent him from winning the election to the Senate from Alabama. He filed against Leigh Corfman, Tina Johnson, Beverly Young Nelson and Debbie Wesson Gibson. A friend of Corfman’s, Richard Hagedorn, was also named.
Moore’s attorney, Melissa Isaak said: “We intend to show the people of Alabama that a political conspiracy came about to ruin his campaign for Senate. And to defame him, defame his character, so that the people of Alabama would not vote for him during the special Senate election.”
During the election, many of the accusations were debunked. But people generally read the original accusations but hardly ever read retractions that are printed at a later time. One accuser, Beverly Young Nelson, claimed that Roy Moore signed her yearbook bur later admitted that some of the writing was her own. Two waitresses from the restaurant came forward and said they don’t remember her ever working there. Both were working there at the time she claimed Roy Moore harassed her. Also, she was 15 at the time and the restaurant never hired anyone under 16.
The Alabama Senate seat has always been a safe Republican seat but because of the accusations, Moore lost to his opponent Doug Jones.
The plaintiffs are asking for both compensatory and punitive damages “in an amount that will adequately reflect the enormity of the defendants’ wrongful, outrageous acts” and an amount high enough to deter future accusations.
Last year’s special election between Moore, the Republican, and Democrat Doug Jones became dramatic when the female defendants publicly accused Moore of acting inappropriately toward them when they were teenagers while Moore was in his 30’s.