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Alabama woman claims Roy Moore grabbed her buttocks while he was married, making her the sixth accuser
New York Daily News 40m ago
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Alabama woman claims Roy Moore grabbed her buttocks while he was married, making her the sixth accuser
Roy Moore stands accused of sexually harassing six women.
(Brynn Anderson/AP)In an extensive interview with AL.com on Wednesday, Gadsden resident Tina Johnson recounted an incident that occurred at Moore's law office in the fall of 1991. Moore was married at the time, making Johnson the first woman to allege that Moore's predatory behavior persisted even after he met his wife, Kayala.
Johnson, 28 at the time and in a difficult marriage, visited Moore's office in Gadsden together with her mother to sign paperwork that would hand custody of her 12-year-old son over to her mom. Almost instantly upon walking into the office, Moore began flirting with her, Johnson said.
"He kept commenting on my looks, telling me how pretty I was, how nice I looked," Johnson said. "He was saying that my eyes were beautiful."
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Moore's comments made Johnson uncomfortable and she remembers thinking, "can we hurry up and get out of here."
At one point during the meeting, Moore came around his desk and sat down just inches from Johnson. He was so close, Johnson said she could smell his breath.
Once all the papers were signed, Johnson was eager to get out of there. But, after her mother walked out first, Moore came up behind her and grabbed her buttocks.
"He didn't pinch it; he grabbed it," Johnson recalled.
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Johnson never told her mother of the experience out of embarrassment and didn't talk about the experience until years later with her sister.
As multiple women came forward with sexual harassment allegations against Moore in recent weeks, Johnson felt compelled to speak out.
"This is not a politics thing with me," she said. "It's more of a moral and religious thing."
Johnson said she's been bothered by seeing Moore on TV talking about Christian faith and piety over the years. She also wishes she could go back in time.
"I guess I'm ashamed I didn't say nothing, didn't turn around and slap him," she said.
Despite mounting pressure from both Democrats and Republicans, Moore has refused to drop out of the Alabama special election over the sexual harassment allegations.
Several of Moore's accusers claim he harassed or assaulted them when they were as young as 14, but the 70-year-old Republican claims the allegations are false and part of an "evil" liberal plot to "crush out and destroy" the conservative movement.
Another woman, Kelly Harrison Thorp, told AL.com on Wednesday that she rebuffed Moore when he tried to ask her out at a Red Lobster restaurant in 1982. Thorp was just 17 at the time.
"I just kind of said, 'Do you know how old I am?'" Thorp remembered telling Moore, who was in his early 30s at the time.
"Yeah," Moore apparently responded, "I go out with girls your age all the time."
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