Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and Leigh Corfman, who accused Moore of sexual abuse in 2017, will face off in a Montgomery courtroom beginning on Monday.
Corfman is suing Moore, who has run for governor and senator, alleging defamation of character.
"In just a few days, my defense team will have the opportunity to do what we have all long-awaited — we intend to expose what really happened during my 2017 United States Senate run and the clear political and personal motives behind the false allegations levied against me just 30 days before the election,” Moore told 1819 News in a statement. “My Defense Team has spent many hours preparing for the trial on Monday, and our case is solid!"
In 2017 Moore was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator when The Washington Post published an article 32 days before the Dec. 12 special election in which six women alleged they dated Moore in the 1970s when they were teenagers and he was single and held the position of deputy district attorney in Etowah County.
Corfman’s allegations were more serious than the other original six because she claimed that Moore took her back to his trailer, where they stripped to their underwear and began touching each other until Corfman said no. She would have been 14 at the time – before the age of sexual consent in Alabama (age 16). That would have been sexual abuse under the criminal code at the time.
Following the original article, other accusers came forward with a variety of accounts of inappropriate conduct by Moore. Moore has steadfastly denied any misconduct.
Moore has maintained that Corfman’s account, as well as the accounts of the other accusers, are untrue and that in reality, this was a conspiracy by the women and Democratic operatives to derail his 2017 political campaign.
Corfman has sued Moore for defamation of character. Moore has countersued Corfman.
The New York v. Sullivan Supreme Court decision of 1964 has made defamation lawsuits by “public figures” very difficult to win. In this particular case, Moore is clearly a “public figure,” having served as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and being a candidate for the U.S. Senate. It will be argued that Corfman made herself a public figure by voluntarily making her sensational charges through a nationally known newspaper, the Washington Post.
Moore was a judge in Etowah County who received national attention as the "Ten Commandments Judge" after attorneys objected to the Commandments being posted on a wall in his courtroom.
Moore was elected Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000. In 2003 he was removed from the court by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary because he failed to follow a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Supreme Court Building.
Moore ran for Governor in 2006 and 2010, both times failing to win the Republican nomination. Moore was again elected as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2012.
In 2016 Moore was suspended for the remainder of his term by the Court of the Judiciary for failing to order conservative probate judges to enforce the controversial Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision making gay marriage lawful.
In 2017 Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) resigned from the Senate to accept a position as President Donald J. Trump’s (R) Attorney General. Then Gov. Robert Bentley (R) appointed then-Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (R) to the Senate. Moore defeated Strange and Congressman Mo Brooks (R-Al05) in the Republican special election primary that followed. However, Moore was defeated by Mountain Brook attorney Doug Jones (D) in the Dec. 12 special general election after the Washington Post story became an international story.
Jones' defeat of Moore remains the only Democratic victory over a Republican in a statewide election in Alabama since 2008. Moore ran again for Senate in 2020 but failed to win the Republican nomination.
Roy Moore is the founder and president emeritus of the Montgomery-based Foundation for Moral Law.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
