Roy Moore Can Proceed with Libel Suit Over Allegation That He Had Solicited Sex at Mall from 14-Year-Old
From Moore v. Senate Majority PAC, decided Tuesday by Judge Corey Maze (N.D. Ala.):
[Roy] Moore won a run-off election to become the Republican nominee for the vacant seat in September 2017. Moore squared off against Democratic nominee Doug Jones in December….
On November 9, 2017, The Washington Post published an article about four women who alleged that Moore sought relationships with them when he was in his 30s and they were in their teens. Relevant here, the article stated, “Wendy Miller says she was 14 and working as a Santa’s helper at the Gadsden Mall when Moore first approached her, and 16 when he asked her on dates, which her mother forbade.”
On November 12, 2017, the New American Journal published an article by Glynn Wilson that alleged, “Sources tell me Moore was actually banned from the Gadsden Mall and the YMCA for his inappropriate behavior of soliciting sex from young girls.” On November 13, 2017, The New Yorker published an article by Charles Bethea that repeated Wilson’s statement. The New Yorker article also stated that Bethea had spoken to “more than a dozen people—including a major political figure in the state—who told [Bethea] that they had heard, over the years, that Moore had been banned from the mall because he repeatedly badgered teen-age girls.” The New Yorker article also stated that Greg Legat thought the ban “started around 1979.” On November 13, 2017, AL.com also published an article that stated, “Wendy Miller told The Post that she was 14 and working as Santa’s helper at the Gadsden Mall in 1977 when Moore first spoke with her and told her she looked pretty. Two years later, when she was 16, he asked her out on dates, although her mother wouldn’t let her go.”
Over the next few weeks, various news agencies circulated these allegations: (1) allegations that Moore sexually harassed or assaulted several more women when they were teenagers; and (2) allegations that Moore was banned from the Gadsden Mall because he sexually harassed or solicited sex from young girls. For example, The New York Times published an article that read, “An article in The New Yorker
Article from Reason.com
