Moore accuser files defamation suit

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama woman who said failed Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore molested her when she was 14 has filed a defamation lawsuit against Moore and his campaign.

Leigh Corfman filed the lawsuit Thursday. The suit says Moore and his campaign defamed her and made false statements as they denied the accusations in the midst of the U.S. Senate race in Alabama that was won by Doug Jones, a Democrat.

Corfman says Moore sexually abused her when she was 14 and then “called me a liar and immoral when I publicly disclosed his misconduct.”

Corfman told The Washington Post in November that when Moore was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney in 1979, he took her to his house, undressed her, touched her over her underpants and bra, and guided her hand to touch his genitals over his underwear. Corfman was one of five women who said Moore pursued them when they were teenagers.

Moore has denied the allegations.

The lawsuit asks Moore to publicly apologize but does not seek financial compensation beyond legal costs.

She said in a statement that the suit seeks “to do what I could not do as a 14-year-old — hold Mr. Moore and those who enable him accountable.”

A representative of Moore’s campaign, Brett Doster, said he had no immediate comment on the lawsuit that was filed in state court in Alabama’s Montgomery County.

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