Yet Another Woman Accuses Roy Moore of Groping Her

Moore's latest accuser a few years before Moore allegedly groped her in his law office

UPDATED:  The Washington Post has released a story confirming that still another accuser of Roy Moore has come forward.  This one was a high school student when Moore pursued her.  Here are excerpts:

Gena Richardson says she was a high school senior working in the men’s department of Sears at the Gadsden Mall when a man approached her and introduced himself as Roy Moore.

“He said, ‘You can just call me Roy,’ ” says Richardson, who says this first encounter happened in the fall of 1977, just before or after her 18th birthday, as Moore, then a 30-year-old local attorney, was gaining a reputation for pursuing young women at the mall in Gadsden, Ala. His overtures caused one store manager to tell new hires to “watch out for this guy,” another young woman to complain to her supervisor and Richardson to eventually hide from him when he came in Sears, the women say.

Richardson says Moore asked her out again on the call. A few days later, after he asked her out at Sears, she relented and agreed, feeling both nervous and flattered. They met that night at a movie theater in the mall after she got off work, a date that ended with Moore driving her to her car in a dark parking lot behind Sears and giving her what she called an unwanted, “forceful” kiss that left her scared.

Richardson, whose account was corroborated by classmate and Sears co-worker Kayla McLaughlin, is among four women who say Moore pursued them when they were teenagers or young women working at the mall — from Sears at one end to the Pizitz department store at the other. Richardson and Becky Gray, the woman who complained to her manager, have not previously spoken publicly.

With one Republican poll showing that GOP candidate Roy Moore may be sinking in the polls and more Congressional Republicans running from Moore like he's the plague, the last thing that Moore needs is more accusations against him for sexual molestation, yet that is precisely what happened today as yet another woman came forward with accusations against Moore.   By all appearances, Moore is that most reprehensible type of man who views women as inferiors how exist for his gratification and pleasure - the very same mindset exhibited by Der Trumpenführer, who to date has said nothing about Moore's growing sexual predator scandal.   AL.com looks at the latest accusations.  Here are excerpts:

A Gadsden woman says Roy Moore groped her while she was in his law office on legal business with her mother in 1991. Moore was married at that time.

In the past week, Moore has been accused by five other women of a range of behaviors that include sexual misconduct with a woman when she was 14, and sexual assault of another when she was 16. This is the first public accusation of physical contact that happened after Moore was married.

In recent days, Moore has publicly denied any wrongdoing, and has denied knowing some of the women.

In interviews with AL.com, Tina Johnson recalls that in the fall of 1991 she sat in the law office of then-attorney Roy Moore on Third Street in Gadsden. Her mother, Mary Katherine Cofield, sat in the chair next to her. Moore sat behind his desk, across from them. Johnson remembers she was wearing a black and white dress.

Almost from the moment she walked in to Moore's office, Johnson said, Moore began flirting with her.  "He kept commenting on my looks, telling me how pretty I was, how nice I looked," recalled Johnson. "He was saying that my eyes were beautiful."

It made her uncomfortable. "I was thinking, can we hurry up and get out of here?"  Johnson was 28 years old, in a difficult marriage headed toward divorce, and unemployed. She was at the office to sign over custody of her 12-year-old son to her mother, with whom he'd been living. Her mother had hired Moore to handle the custody petition.

Once the papers were signed, she and her mother got up to leave. After her mother walked through the door first, she said, Moore came up behind her.  It was at that point, she recalled, he grabbed her buttocks.  "He didn't pinch it; he grabbed it," said Johnson. She was so surprised she didn't say anything. She didn't tell her mother.

She said she told her sister years later how Moore had made her feel uncomfortable during that meeting. Her sister told AL.com she remembers the conversation.

AL.com located the court documents from 1991, detailing the custody transfer. Cofield's petition for custody is signed by Roy S. Moore, attorney. It lists his address as 924 Third Avenue, Gadsden.

"This is not a politics thing with me," she said. "It's more of a moral and religious thing." It has bothered her over the years to see Moore on TV, talking about his Christian faith.  She wanted to come forward publicly now, she said, because it's hard for victims of harassment to talk openly about their experiences.

"I want people to know that it's OK to finally say something," she said. "I guess I'm ashamed I didn't say nothing, didn't turn around and slap him."

It's an issue both Johnson and Thorp wanted to address.  Thorp said local women have not spoken publicly against Moore before now because he had power in town and in the state, and they didn't think they would be believed.  "Everybody knew it wouldn't matter," she said, "that he would get elected anyway because his supporters are never going to believe anything bad about him."

Johnson said the answer was even more simple.  "It's because somebody asked," she said. "If anybody had asked, we would have told it. No one asked."

 If evangelicals continue to support Moore, their moral bankruptcy will be complete.  I hope the larger society is watching and will judge them - and shun them - accordingly.