Beverly Young Nelson Details Roy Moore Assault On Her As 16-Year-Old Waitress

Image by ALEX BROOK LYNN at The Daily Beast

In one of the most compelling moments I've ever witnessed on television, Beverly Young Nelson voiced in vivid, graphic detail her 1977 attack by Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. Nelson becomes the fifth woman -- and probably the most serious accuser -- along with Leigh Corfman. Nelson was quick to say that both she and her husband voted for Donald Trump and her claims have nothing to do with politics. It was reading the stories of the other women that prompted Beverly Young Nelson to come forward.

Represented by Gloria Allard, who specializes in sexual harassment and sexual assault cases, Nelson recounted Mr. Moore's attack on her when she was 16 and a waitress in a Gadsden, Alabama and he was a prosecutor in Etowah County, Ala. The Daily Beast details her testimony about that night.

Earlier in the evening, Moore had signed Nelson's yearbook -- which Nelson produced at the news conference -- and later offered her a ride home. Instead of getting on the highway, she alleges, Moore parked in the back of the Olde Hickory House restaurant. Nelson said she asked Moore what he was doing.

“Instead of answering my question, Mr. Moore reached over and began groping me, putting his hands on my breasts,” Nelson said weeping. “I tried to open my car door to leave, but he reached over and locked it so I could not get out. I tried fighting him off, while yelling at him to stop, but instead of stopping he began squeezing my neck attempting to force my head onto his crotch. I continued to struggle. I was determined that I was not going to allow him to force me to have sex with him. I was terrified. He was also trying to pull my shirt off. I thought that he was going to rape me. I was twisting and struggling and begging him to stop. I had tears running down my face.

“At some point he gave up. He then looked at me and said, ‘You are a child. I am the District Attorney of Etowah County. ‘If you tell anyone about this, no one will believe you,’” she continued. “He finally allowed me to open the car door and I either fell out or he pushed me out. I was on the ground as he pulled out of the parking area behind the restaurant. The passenger door was open as he burned rubber pulling away leaving me laying there on the cold concrete in the dark.”

Nelson said she was left bruised by the alleged assault and used makeup to cover up the bruises on her neck. “When I got home, I went to my room, and the following morning, my neck was black and blue and purple,” Nelson detailed.

The news conference follows a Facebook post on Monday in which Mr. Moore's wife, Kayla Moore, complained about "a witch hunt" in Alabama. Mrs Moore claimed that the campaign is "gathering evidence of money being paid to people who would come forward."

“Washington establishment and Democrat Party will stop at nothing to stop our campaign,” she wrote. “Prayers appreciated.....”

As national Republicans scramble for the best response to the allegations against Moore, Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, speaking in his role as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that if Mr. Moore wins the special election on Dec. 12, he should be expelled from the Senate, “because he does not meet the ethical and moral requirements of the United States Senate.”

Mr. Moore, an infamous judge who was twice removed from Alabama's Supreme Court, first for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from the Supreme Court grounds, then for refusing to accept the gay marriage decision of the US Supreme Court, continues to respond defiantly to the stories. Presently, he shows no sign of leaving the race ahead of Alabama’s Dec. 12 special election date.