By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
The Roy Moore Campaign claimed that newly unveiled statements from key witnesses “completely bust the story of Beverly Nelson and Gloria Allred and further reveal an unconscionable bias on the part of state and national press to hide the truth from Alabama voters who will undoubtedly see through the ‘fake news’ and elect Judge Moore for the man that they have always known him to be.”
The Moore campaign claims that a former waitress has said that the Olde Hickory House required employees to be 16 years old. Nelson claims she was 15 when she started. The campaign also claims that two former employees have produced statement where they claim that the dumpsters were on the side of the building. Ms. Nelson claimed that the dumpster were in the back.
According to the campaign, Olde Hickory House sat right off of the four-lane highway and had a wrap-around porch with lights all around it. Nelson claimed that the surroundings were “dark and isolated.” Rhonda Ledbetter, who worked at Olde Hickory House for almost 3 years, states that the earliest it closed was at 11 p.m. but she believes it was open until midnight. She is certain it did not close at 10:00 p.m. because Goodyear was next door, and employees came to eat when their shift ended at 10 p.m. Nelson claims her story occurred after the restaurant closed at 10 p.m.
The Moore campaign claims that it is unlikely that there was an entrance from the back of the parking lot, which Nelson claimed existed. Multiple sources have claimed that everyone parked on the sides of the building because there wasn’t much room behind the restaurant, according to Rhonda not enough room to turn around. Renee Schivera stated that a neighborhood backed up to the parking lot and it was adjacent to the backyards of people’s houses, so she did not see how there would have been a back entrance as it would have gone through someone’s yard.
Nelson claims that Moore came in almost every night and sat at the counter, but former employees state that customers at the counter were served by the bartender or short order cook – not served by the waitresses and had no reason to interact with the wait staff Additionally, two former waitresses and two former patrons state they never saw Judge Moore come into the restaurant.
The Moore campaign claims that these witnesses have shared their testimony with multiple news outlets. The outlets have failed to report.
The Alabama Political Reporter is not actively hiding or suppressing any evidence that would exonerate Judge Roy Moore. Neither are we suppressing any evidence that might prove Roy Moore’s guilt. We can not speak for all of the local and national media.
According to the Moore campaign report, Rhonda Ledbetter, a retired public school teacher, was a waitress at Olde Hickory House for almost three years from 1977-1979. She was a college student at Jacksonville State University at the time and worked varying shifts at different times of day, multiple days a week during the time of her employment. She said in a statement: “When I heard Beverly Nelson’s story, there were several details that were different from what I remember. I was nervous at coming forward because of all the attention this story has gotten, but as a moral and ethical person I had to speak up about what I know to be true. I was a waitress at Olde Hickory for almost three years from 1977-1979, and I never saw Roy Moore come in to the restaurant. Not one time. And I would have noticed because most of our customers weren’t wearing suits, especially not at night. Many customers worked at Goodyear next door and would stop in on their way to and from work, and I don’t remember anyone from the courthouse coming in at all. That just wasn’t our crowd.”
“A few things stuck out to me. First, Nelson said she was 15 years old when she started working there but you had to be 16,” Ledbetter said in her statement. “I don’t remember her from my time there, and I don’t remember any 15 year olds working there at all. Second, Nelson said the restaurant closed at 10 p.m. but I know the earliest it closed was 11, though I believe it was midnight. I’m certain of that because Goodyear employees came in to eat after their shift ended at 10:00 p.m., so there’s no way we would have closed at that time.”
“Third, the area wasn’t dark and isolated as she described,” Ledbetter claimed. “Rather, the building was right off the busy four-lane highway and people and cars were always around. The restaurant had a wrap-around porch, like the ones at Cracker Barrel restaurants, and there were lights all around the sides of the building. So it wasn’t dark and anyone in the parking lot was visible from the road.”
“Fourth, the dumpsters were to the side of the building, not around back and there sure wasn’t room to park in between the building and the dumpsters,” Ledbetter said. “People from the kitchen would take trash out of the side door and throw it right into the dumpsters. We were always told to park on the side of the building, because there just wasn’t much room behind it. I don’t remember there being an exit from the back of the parking lot, there would barely have been enough room to turn a car around.”
“I came forward because from what I’ve seen, the media is only interested in reporting one side of this story,” Ledbetter said. “In fact, Dixon Hayes from WRBC in Birmingham asked for former employees to contact him but never responded when I told him I never saw Roy Moore come into Olde Hickory House during the three years I worked for. Two other news outlets in the state asked to interview me and I agreed, but neither one has aired my interview and I have to wonder why they don’t think the people of Alabama deserve to hear anything that counteracts the accusations against Judge Moore. It’s not for me to say whether or not something happened, I can only tell the truth about factual details that I know for sure. I think all Alabamians deserve to have all of the facts so they can decide for themselves what the truth is. Despite what the national media and people in DC might say, Alabama voters are intelligent and have common sense. We don’t need anyone to tell us how to vote or to explain to us what really happened. We will make that decision and I just wanted to do my part in sharing the truth on some of these important facts. I, like all Alabama voters, want any and all information that can shed light on the truth.”
Johnny Belyeu, Sr. is a former police officer with over two decades of experience with the Etowah County Sheriff’s Department and the Gadsden Police Department. He said in a statement, “I was an officer with the Etowah County Sheriff’s Department in the 1970s which means I worked in the courthouse and knew who Roy Moore was since he was the Deputy District Attorney at the time. I was a regular customer at Olde Hickory House, and I never once saw Judge Moore come in there. If he had I would have immediately recognized him. I also never met Beverly Nelson during any of the many times I frequented the restaurant, and I can’t say that she even worked there.”
Renee Schivera of Huntsville stated, “I was a waitress at the Olde Hickory House during the summer of 1977, before my senior year of high school. When I heard Beverly Nelson’s story the first thing that stuck out to me was that I don’t remember Roy Moore ever coming into the restaurant. I also don’t remember her working there. The other thing that struck me as odd is that from my best recollection, the dumpsters were to the side of the building. I just know they were visible from the road, and not back behind the building. But the main thing is that if someone came in almost every night we knew who there were, and I never saw Roy Moore there. As a Christian woman, I wouldn’t lie for anyone and I am only sharing what I know because it’s the truth.”
“The days of unbiased reporting are over,” Moore Campaign strategist Brett Doster said. “The liberal media will dodge any source and refuse to air any interview that doesn’t square with their effort to land a liberal Democrat in the senate seat. The Moore Campaign is committed to presenting factual truth to the people of Alabama and looks forward to victory on December 12.”
Beverly Nelson claims that she was a waitress at Olde Hickory House and that Roy Moore was a regular there. She has produced her high school year book with Moore’s signature. The Moore campaign claims that Moore’s signature was copied direct from a filing in Nelson’s divorce complete with a little D.A. after Roy Moore’s name. The Moore campaign says that the D.A. stands for Delbra Adams who was Moore’s aide when he was a judge who initialed the documents when they were filed. The signature in the year book includes the D.A. even though Moore was a deputy District Attorney, not the actual district attorney. Ms. Adams has come forwards and corroborated Moore’s story about the D.A. being in the court documents. Nelson’s attorney, Gloria Allred has refused to hand over the yearbook to be analyzed by a forgery expert.
Nelson claims that Moore offered to give her a ride and then drove behind the restaurant by the dumpster and then tried to force her to give him oral sex. When she refused Nelson claims that Moore tossed her out of the vehicle and drove away. Her boyfriend then picked her up and drove her home. Nelson claims that she did not tell her boyfriend about the attack by the then 30 year old Moore.
Nelson’s stepson says that she is lying and that he supports Moore.
The first accusations were first made by the Washington Post which has endorsed Doug Jones for U.S. Senate. Gloria Alredd then had a press conference to unveil Ms. Nelson and her alleged relationship with Moore.
Moore faces Jones in a special election on December 12.
