Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore sexually assaulted a 16-year-old when he was an adult — locking her inside his car and forcing her head onto his crotch, the now-grown woman claimed Monday.
Beverly Young Nelson says she was working as a waitress at the Olde Hickory House in Gadsden, Ala., in 1977 and the then-district attorney was a regular customer who often tried to grab her long red hair and flirt.
One night, he offered to drive her home and she trusted him because he was the DA — but once she got in the car, he parked next to a dumpster behind the restaurant, Nelson said at a Manhattan press conference with attorney Gloria Allred on Monday afternoon.
“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 struggling to pull my shirt off,” she said.
“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,” Nelson said.
When he finally gave up, Moore allegedly told her: “You are a child. I am the district attorney of Etiwah County. If you tell anyone about this, no one will believe you.”
He then let her out of the car and he sped off.
“The following morning, my neck was black and blue and purple. In the days following, I covered the bruising on my neck with makeup. I did not tell anyone about what had happened. I was scared. I felt that if I told anyone, Mr. Moore would do something to me or my family,” she said.
Nelson says she quit her job, but later told her sister, mom and husband, who backed up her story to Allred.
To augment Nelson’s story, she shared a copy of her yearbook from that year, which Moore had signed just weeks before the alleged attack.
“To a sweeter, more beautiful girl I could not say ‘Merry Christmas,'” he had written in the book.
She additionally offered details from the night, including that Moore was wearing “brown Hush Puppies” and drove a two-door car.
Nelson, who says she voted for Donald Trump, said she isn’t trying to make a political point but was inspired to come forward by the other women who have recently accused Moore of lechery.
“I thought I was Mr. Moore’s only victim. I would probably have taken what Mr. Moore did to me to my grave, had it not been for the courage of four other women,” she said.
Nelson said she’d voluntarily testify on her claims under oath — and Allred called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a public hearing into Moore’s alleged actions.
She said Nelson won’t do any more press interviews about her claims — unless Congress fails to hold a hearing.
Moore has already been accused of fondling a 14-year-old when he was 32, and hitting on several other teen girls. Leigh Corfman says they met in 1979 when he was an assistant district attorney, and he later took her clothes off and touched her while putting her hand on his crotch.
Moore denies Corfman’s claims, but they’ve cost him the support of many GOP lawmakers — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who on Monday declared that he believes “the women” and that Moore should “step aside.”