Another woman has come forward to say that Alabama Republican Roy Moore sexually abused her when she was a teen and he was more than a decade older.
Beverly Young Nelson, who is represented by attorney Gloria Allred, told her story at a New York press conference on Monday.
Nelson, who met Moore through her job as a waitress, recalled an incident in which Moore offered to give her a ride home one night in 1977. Instead of taking her home, she said, he drove around the restaurant and assaulted her.
“I thought that he was going to rape me,” Nelson said.
After a struggle, Nelson said, Moore let her go with a threat.
“He looked at me, and he told me, ‘You’re just a child.’ And he said, ‘I am the district attorney of Etowah County, and if you tell anyone about this, no one will ever believe you,’” she added.
A representative for Moore responded to news of the press conference with a personal attack against Allred, calling her a “sensationalist leading a witch hunt” in a statement that also referenced the attorney’s role in abortion policy.
“Judge Moore is an innocent man and has never had any sexual misconduct with anyone,” the statement read. “This is a witch hunt against a man who has had an impeccable career for over 30 years and has always been known as a man of high character.”
Nelson joins four women who went on record with damaging allegations against the U.S. Senate hopeful in a Washington Post report published last week.
In the most serious accusation, Leigh Corfman said Moore sexually assaulted her in 1979, when she was 14.
Moore was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney in Alabama when, according to Corfman, he approached her and asked for her phone number. Corfman said he later brought her to a wooded area, where he kissed her and touched her over her underwear, guiding her to touch him as well.
Three other women told the Post that Moore pursued them when they were between ages 16 and 18. Wendy Miller said she was 14 when she was first met Moore and 16 when he asked her out, but added that she went on no dates with him. Debbie Wesson Gibson said she briefly dated Moore at age 17 and that the relationship did not go beyond kissing. Gloria Thacker Deason was 18 years old, one year below Alabama’s legal drinking age, when Moore began taking her on alcohol-infused dates, she said.
In response to the report, the Senate’s campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, severed its ties with Moore on Friday.
Yet only a handful of Republicans have voiced criticism individually and pulled their support of Moore.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was one of the first politicians to say definitively that the Alabama candidate was not fit to serve in the Senate. After suggesting he needed more information before passing judgment, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that he “believe[s] the women” and that Moore should step aside. Meanwhile, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) rescinded their endorsements.
It’s unclear what effect the mounting accusations will have, as many Republicans in the Senate have said they would only denounce Moore if the women’s stories are somehow proven true.
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- This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
