A press conference in Etowah County by Roy Moore and his defense team was canceled Thursday after they made a late decision to postpone plans to file new lawsuits.
“The announcement of new charges against additional defendants in this matter will be postponed due to delay of cases already pending before two separate courts of the state, as well as at the Alabama Supreme Court, making it inadvisable to proceed at this time,” the Moore team said in a statement.
They made it clear however that future suits are planned.
“We fully intend to announce new charges against new defendants in the coming months,” they said.
Moore was twice elected as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
Moore, however, was removed from the state’s highest court by the Court of the Judiciary after Moore refused a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the State Supreme Court building.
After two failed bids for governor, Moore was elected chief justice again in 2012. This time the Court of the Judiciary suspended him for the remainder of his term after he failed to order Alabama’s probate judges to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Moore appeared to be cruising to an easy special general election victory for U.S. Senate when the Washington Post printed allegations that during the 1970s Moore dated younger women.
Leigh Corfman alleged that Moore took her to his mobile home in 1976 took off her outer clothes and the couple engaged in some inappropriate touching of the areas covered by their underwear, until she decided that she had had enough.
Corfman claims that she was 15 during her encounter with then 36-year-old Etowah County Deputy District Attorney Moore. The age of consent in Alabama is, and was then, 16 years old. Under the statute at the time, that encounter would have been misdemeanor sexual abuse. The statute of limitations on that would have expired in 1983.
Moore denies Corfman’s story and has called Corfman and the other accusers liars.
Corfman claims that her character has been assassinated and has sued Moore in Montgomery County court. Moore counter-sued Corfman and has filed suit against his other accusers.
After the Washington Post story, the National Senate Republican Committee and Republican National Republican Committee both withdrew all of their financial support for the Moore campaign while the Democratic National Committee and its allies poured $22 million into the race; while the Democrats mainstream media allies blasted Moore relentlessly.
Moore narrowly lost his election to the Senate by just 12,000 votes to former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones.
The Washington Post won a Pulitzer prize for its reporting on Moore.
Moore said that he is open to running for office again if the opportunity arises.
