Jury awards $8.2 Million to Roy Moore

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MONTGOMERY (Ala.) — Friday’s federal jury awarded $8.2 Million in damages to Republican Roy Moore after finding that a Democratic-aligned super PAC had defamed Moore in a television ad about sexual misconduct allegations during his unsuccessful 2017 U.S. Senate campaign in Alabama.

Jurors found that the Senate Majority PAC made defamatory and false statements about Moore in one ad. This aimed to draw attention to the allegations against Moore. After a short trial in Anniston (Alabama), the jury returned a verdict for Moore. Moore has previously lost defamation suits against Sacha Baron Cohen.

” We are very grateful to God that we have the opportunity to restore my reputation, which was badly damaged by the 2017 elections,” Moore stated in a phone interview.

Ben Stafford (an attorney for Senate Majority PAC) stated in an emailed message that they believed the decision would be overturned upon appeal.

Moore was a former Republican judge who is known for opposing homosexual marriages and his support of the public display the Ten Commandments. He lost the 2017 Senate election after he was accused of misconduct. Leigh Corfman told The Washington Post and said Moore sexually touched her in 1979 when she was 14 and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. Moore has denied this accusation. Moore was allegedly a teen when he dated or invited women out on dates.

Moore’s accusations led to him losing to Doug Jones (Democrat), who is the first Democrat to be elected to the Senate to represent Alabama for over a quarter century. With the 2020 electoral victory of Tommy Tuberville (a former college football coach), Republican control returned to this seat.

Senate Majority PAC supported a Highway 31 group that ran a $4,000,000 advertising blitz against Moore.

The lawsuit was centered around a TV commercial in which Moore was accused. Moore’s attorneys argued the ad, through the juxtaposition of statements, falsely claimed he solicited sex from young girls at a shopping mall, including another 14-year-old who was working as a Santa’s helper, and that resulted in him being banned from the mall.

The advertisement started with “What do people know about Roy Moore?” and then went on to “Moore was banned from Gadsden Mall… for soliciting young girls sex” and “One of the men he approached was 14 working as Santa’s helper .”

Wendy Miller previously stated that Moore met her when she was 14 working at the mall as a Santa’s assistant. Moore testified that she told her she looked pretty and asked where she attended high school. He also offered to buy her soda. Two years later, he asked her to marry him. Her mother said she couldn’t go.

Moore’s lawyers argued that the juxtapositions of statements in Moore’s ad cast Moore in a false way and made it appear like Moore was seeking sex at mall girls.

” In their advertisement they strung together quotes to make one statement. This is what the jury found offensive. “They lied, and they said that they did not intend to do that,” Jeffrey Scott Wittenbrink (an attorney representing Moore) said.

The Senate Majority PAC argued that the ad is substantially true, and there are numerous reports regarding Moore’s behavior at the mall. A lawyer stated that they intended to appeal.

According to Senate Majority’s Thursday court filing, a Gadsden officer was named as a security guard at Gadsden Mall during the late 1970s. – J.D. Thomas testified that Moore told him not to go back to the mall, after he received complaints from managers about Moore asking for teen workers or making them feel uncomfortable. Moore claimed he wasn’t banned from the mall.

” No amount of distraction or deflection from Roy Moore can change the fact multiple witnesses under oath testified to support credible allegations against him. Others have also come forward with their claims, often at great personal expense. “We don’t believe this verdict is correct, but we believe that the facts are obvious and this ruling can be overturned upon appeal,” Stafford, an attorney for Senate Majority PAC stated in an emailed message.