Leigh Corfman, who claimed that former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore molested her when she was 14 years old, has filed a defamation lawsuit against him.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, also names Moore's campaign as a defendant.
Moore and his campaign committee "have defamed Ms. Corfman, repeatedly and in all forms of media, calling her a liar and questioning her motivation for publicly disclosing that Mr. Moore sexually abused her in 1979 when she was a 14-year-old high school freshman and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney."
The allegations by Corfman, first reported Nov. 9 by The Washington Post, were the centerpiece of a scandal that plagued Moore's campaign over the final month, which ended with a narrow loss to Democrat Doug Jones.
Moore has repeatedly denied the allegations made by Corfman and other women of unwanted romantic or sexual advances.
Corfman has confirmed the Post's account to AL.com.
"The decision to sue Mr. Moore and his campaign committee was difficult, but they need to be held responsible for their actions," Corfman said in a written statement to AL.com. "Mr. Moore sexually abused me when I was only 14 years old. Then he and his campaign called me a liar and immoral when I publicly disclosed his misconduct. They ignored my requests to stop attacking me and to acknowledge the truth. Just last week, after the election, they filed a lawsuit in which they once again called me a liar. By this lawsuit, I seek to do what I could not do as a 14-year-old--hold Mr. Moore and those who enable him accountable."
A phone message left by AL.com at the office of Moore attorney Trent Garmon was not immediately returned Thursday.
The 29-page lawsuit seeks for the defendants to retract all defamatory statements made against Corfman, to publicly apologize for those statements and to refrain from further defamatory statements as well as to pay the costs and expenses of the lawsuit. The suit also asks for "further relief as permitted by law and as the court deems appropriate."
The lawsuit also pointed to the legal filing by Moore and his campaign on Dec. 27, 2017 that was an effort to stop the election results from being certified by the state of Alabama. In that document, Corfman's allegations were described as "false and malicious."
Corfman's lawsuit also raised the issue of a Nov. 28 open letter from her to Moore provided to AL.com that "asked him to stop denying his sexual abuse of her in 1979, to acknowledge his misconduct, and to apologize."
"Instead, the lawsuit said, "Moore continued his attacks, accusing Ms. Corfman of lying and having improper purposes. He made these statements at campaign rallies, in interviews, on the internet, on the radio, on television, and in newspapers. Mr. Moore has claimed, among other assertions, that Ms. Corfman's account is 'completely false,' 'malicious,' 'politically motivated,' that it reflects 'the immorality of our time,' and that 'there is not one ounce of truth in her accusations.'"
The lawsuit said that as a result of the statements made by Moore and his campaign, Corfman took a temporary leave of absence from her job without compensation.
Corfman said she has not received any compensation from The Post or any other source for disclosing her encounter with Moore.
"Ms. Corfman is a private citizen whose only motivation is to clear her name and to stop Mr. Moore and the Moore Campaign Committee from continuing their defamatory attacks on her," the lawsuit said. "Ms. Corfman wishes that defendants had heeded her requests to cease their defamation of her and seeks judicial intervention as a last resort to hold Defendants accountable for their misconduct, including a declaration that defendants' denials of Mr. Moore's sexual abuse of her and their characterization of her account of this abuse as 'false,' 'malicious,' and 'immoral,' among other untrue statements, are defamatory, as well as injunctive relief against these statements. Mr. Moore and the Moore Campaign Committee will likely continue their defamation of Ms. Corfman unless this Court orders them to stop."
The lawsuit outlines 11 instances in which Moore publicly denied Corfman's allegations or denied knowing her altogether.
"All these statements by Mr. Moore are defamatory," the lawsuit said. "Mr. Moore sexually abused Ms. Corfman in 1979, when she was 14 years old and he was in his early 30s, and Mr. Moore's denials of these facts are false and his characterizations of Ms. Corfman and her motivations are untrue. Mr. Moore knew or should have known that Ms. Corfman's account is truthful because he was the perpetrator in the events she described. At a minimum, Mr. Moore was reckless in
making these statements."
Regarding the Moore campaign committee, the lawsuit identified five people "have repeated Mr. Moore's false denials of sexually abusing Ms. Corfman when she was 14 years old and Mr. Moore's reckless accusations of improper motivations."
Those five individuals associated with the campaign: Manager Rich Hobson, Chairman Bill Armistead, attorney Benjamin Dupre, spokeswoman Janet Porter and strategist Dean Young.
Story updated today, Jan. 4, 2018, at 5:19 p.m. with more information.
Leigh Corfman's suit against Roy Moore by Jeremy W. Gray on Scribd