Moore accuser says expert confirmed his 1977 yearbook signature

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An attorney for a woman who says Roy Moore assaulted her when she was a 16-year-old waitress says a handwriting expert has confirmed that his inscription in her 1977 yearbook is authentic. Moore’s campaign says the accuser’s admission that she added the time and place of Moore’s yearbook inscription in her own handwriting undermines her entire story.

Beverly Nelson’s high school yearbook has become key evidence supporting her claim that the 34-year-old prosecutor was a regular at the Olde Hickory House restaurant where she worked as a teenager — and where she says he attacked her in his car after she accepted his offer of a ride home one cold winter night.

Moore has denied knowing Nelson, or the restaurant in Gadsden, for that matter.

With just days to go before Tuesday’s voting in Moore’s Senate race against Democrat Doug Jones, his campaign has been roiled by this and other accusations of sexual misconduct decades ago.

Moore has aggressively sought to discredit his accusers, suggesting that both establishment Republicans and liberals are behind the claims. Moore has posted on Twitter frequently about the yearbook, calling his signature a forgery.

The inscription reads, “To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say, ‘Merry Christmas.’” It is followed by the signature “Roy Moore D.A.” and the notation “1222-77 Olde Hickory House.”