It's about getting a complete picture of the character of a man running for US senate. Some find a man who, as a matter of taste, preferred minors when he was in his 30s, as someone they wouldn't vote for.
I'm sure others will hold their nose and vote for him anyway.
I guess if we want to get a complete picture about Moore's penchant for minors, we really ought to study the allegations.
I found this list at
Vice News (great place to find such, don't you think?). As it says "8", and the most recent tally is "9", I'll add one from another source.
Leigh Corfman
Corfman said Moore first approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County with her mother when she was 14. Days later, he allegedly picked her up for a date which ended with Moore, then 32, kissing her.
Corfman said a second date at Moore’s home in the woods ended with Moore taking off his and Corfman’s clothes, touching her over her bra and underwear, and guiding her hand to touch him over his underwear.
Moore, however, said he had “never known” Corfman and “never had any contact with her.”
Debbie Wesson Gibson
Gibson said she was 17 when Moore spoke to her high school civics class, after which he asked her out. That resulted in the first of several dates, which Gibson told the Washington Post “did not progress beyond kissing.”
Wendy Miller
Miller was also 14 and working as a Santa’s helper at the Gadsden Mall when she said Moore first approached her. Two years later, when she was 16, Moore allegedly asked her out on dates, but she refused because her mother forbade it. [Note that to make it look more sinister, they mention she was 14 when Moore "first approached her", but he didn't ask her out until she was 16. Why? Is it because Moore respected the laws of the state and wouldn't ask her out at 14????]
Gloria Thacker Deason
Moore allegedly began taking the 18-year-old cheerleader on dates that she said included bottles of Mateus Rosé wine despite Alabama’s legal drinking age of 19. Deason said the two dated on and off for “several months,” which allegedly included several visits to Moore’s home, although Deason said their physical relationship never got further than kissing and hugging.
Moore acknowledged knowing both Deason and Miller and said he remembered one of them “as a good girl.” Regarding Deason’s claim of ordering alcohol for her when she was a minor, Moore said: “As I recall, she was 19 or older.”
Beverly Young Nelson
Nelson said she first met Moore when she was 15 and working at a restaurant in Gadsden, Alabama, that he frequented as a district attorney. Then, when she was 16, Nelson said Moore assaulted her. Although Nelson said she fought Moore off and he eventually gave up, he allegedly warned her: “You’re just a child, I’m the district attorney. If you tell anyone about this no one will ever believe you
Moore also rejected Nelson’s accusations as “absolutely false” and added, “I don’t even know the woman.”
Gena Richardson
Richardson said Moore propositioned her just before or after her 18th birthday, while she was working in the men’s department of Sears at the Gadsden Mall. After declining multiple requests for a date, Richardson said Moore called her while she was in school. Richardson said she finally relented and went on a date to a movie with Moore, after which he allegedly drove her to a dark car park and forcefully kissed her as she was about to leave.
Becky Gray
When she was 22, Gray also worked at the Gadsden Mall in the men’s department of Pizitz. She said Moore’s persistence in asking her out made her uncomfortable because he lingered in her section or by the bathroom area. She became so disturbed she complained to management about Moore.
Moore’s behavior at the Gadsden Mall was reportedly well known in the area, although reports that he was banned from the mall couldn’t be confirmed.
Tina Johnson
Johnson said Moore groped her after a meeting with him in 1991 to review a custody petition involving her son and mother. Johnson was 28 at the time and said Moore grabbed her butt.
“He didn’t pinch it; he grabbed it,” Johnson told AL.com. |
From
Heavy.com:
...Kelly Harrison Thorp, who was a 17-year-old high school senior in 1982, waitressing at a Red Lobster restaurant in Gadsden, Alabama.
Thorp told AL.com that Moore came in to the Red Lobster one day when she was working, and she instantly recognized him because, as the deputy district attorney for Etowah County, “He was a public figure in this small town.” Thorp said Moore asked her if she’d like to go out with him sometime. “I just kind of said, ‘Do you know how old I am?,'” she said. “And he said, ‘Yeah. I go out with girls your age all the time.”
Thorp turned him down and said she had a boyfriend, and Moore walked away.
|
Here is the ad Doug Jones, Moore's opponent for the Senate seat, ran, making the same claim as you did: "Leigh Corfman," the ad begins. "Beverly Young Nelson. Debbie Wesson Gibson. Gloria Thacker Deason. Gena Richardson. Wendy Miller Kelly Harrison Thorp. And the list is growing.
They were girls when Roy Moore immorally pursued them. Now they are women, witnesses to us all of his disturbing conduct. Will we make their abuser a U.S. senator? Tina Johnson. Becky Gray." (from
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-doug-jones-ad-shows-names-faces-of-each-roy-moore-accuser/)
There are two of the females who were admittedly older than the Alabama age of majority--Tina Johnson and Becky Gray. Jones knew this and did not include their names in the first list in his ad, though he added their names at the end in what seems like a deceptive attempt to include them in the same category. Thus, we are down to only 7.
The state of Alabama counts the age of majority as 19. That's when a person can sign contracts. But since we aren't talking about a contract any more than we are talking about a criminal investigation, we don't look at the age of majority, but the age of consent, which is 16 in AL. Thus, whether they were minors or not makes absolutely no difference, except for one other reason--
Wendy Miller was 16 when Moore asked her out, but she refused "because her mother forbade it." Notice that it wasn't because she didn't WANT to go out with him or thought it creepy, at least from her story. (And can you doubt that the story would have been fully expressed if she had?)
Kelly Harrison Thorp seemed to think Moore was creepy to ask her out at 17, but she said no, and he left. That puts us at only 5. Unless you think it's morally wrong (as Doug Jones apparently does) to ask a young woman out and then leave when she says no.
Gloria Thacker Deason and Debbie Wesson Gibson both went out with Moore several times, without going beyond kissing and hugging. Apparently they both consented to these displays of affection. Now we're down to 3.
Gena Richardson was about 18 (SHE doesn't remember if she was 18 or almost 18) when Moore "propositioned" her. I didn't see any details of what he "proposed", but she refused a number of times until he called her at school. Now while that sounds creepy to me, apparently it was just the thing for Richardson, as she agreed to go out with him, "feeling both nervous and
flattered". It is disturbing that Moore "forcefully" kissed her. That was definitely inappropriate. But she doesn't go on to say he tried to do anything else, and she didn't go out with him any more.
Both Leigh Corfman's (14) and Beverly Young Nelson's (16) stories are grievous in terms of the activities they reported, but they are different from all the other stories and different from each other. Corfman's because of the removal of clothing (even though she didn't seem to object right away), and Nelson's because of both the forceful and continued nature of the advance, as well as the apparent objective.
Nelson's is more out of character (ignoring Corfman's age for a moment) with almost everything else we hear about Moore. And it sounds suspiciously like Gretchen Carlson's account of an assault from a top public relations executive that she related in her book "Be Fierce".
Nelson: "he began squeezing my neck trying to force my head onto his crotch."
Carlson: “He immediately grabbed the back of my head and pushed my face so hard into his crotch I couldn’t breathe,”
Obviously multiple men could and have done such things, but in light of the other testimony about the Olde Hickory House area, rules, and workers, along with the seemingly dubious and unavailable yearbook, I think Nelson should be considered very suspect in her accusation.
That leaves a single underage sexual contact story that needs to be fleshed out (no pun intended) in terms of the underage "charges" leveled against Moore. Let's do that. Let's make sure it is investigated as appropriately as we can so that neither the alleged victim nor the alleged suspect is treated wrongly. But using the scare tactic of "9 victims of immoral sexual behavior", is immoral too.