Judge Roy Moore Demands That Beverly Young Nelson Yearbook Be Sent For Handwriting Analysis

Judge Roy Moore and his legal team are demanding that attorney Gloria Allred release Beverly Young Nelson’s yearbook to an independent forensic examiner to determine the authenticity of his signature. As one of Moore’s accusers, Nelson claims that Roy Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16.

Judge Moore, a candidate for U.S. Senate from Alabama, allegedly signed her yearbook shortly after Christmas 1977, but Moore claims that his signature was tampered with and that he doesn’t even know Nelson.

A controversial and insurgent Republican, Moore has denied the misconduct accusations against him by six women, and the GOP leadership, who backed appointed Senator Luther Strange in the primary, has called upon him to drop out. Some other lawmakers have withdrawn their previous endorsement of his candidacy. Moore has insisted he is staying in the race and is supported by the state GOP despite the scandal. Polling data for the December 12 matchup with Democrat Doug Jones is all over the map.

Although developments seem to be unfolding by the minute, they have now been somewhat overshadowed by news that U.S. Senator Al Franken made improper advances to model/media personality Leeann Tweeden. Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, is perhaps previously best known as “Stuart Smalley” from Saturday Night Live. Franken issued a formal apology to Tweeden after she released a photo of Franken groping her as she slept.

The most explosive allegation against Judge Roy Moore so far is that he had a sexual encounter with a different woman when she was 14 and he was 32.

Earlier this week, Sean Hannity gave Moore 24 hours to explain inconsistencies in his version of events. Moore’s open letter to Hannity seems to have satisfied the Fox News host, and he now says that the Alabama voters should decide, as explained in the video embedded below.

An advertiser boycott of his TV show promoted by the George Soros-funded Media Matters group seems to have died down after Hannity noted that his radio interview with Moore received praise for its thoroughness from the mainstream media along with his insistence that Moore, who seemed somewhat evasive during the discussion, should end his bid for higher office if the allegations were true.

Hannity also maintained that Media Matters took one sentence from the long radio interview out of context. In the meantime, lots of people took to social media with videos of themselves destroying Keurig coffeemakers as the hashtag #BoycottKeurig trended on Twitter. Keurig was one the advertisers who bailed on Hannity’s Fox show.

The Trump White House also is taking the position that Alabama voters should be the decision-makers in the election, although the president has previously stated that Moore should exit the contest if the allegations are true.

In his letter to Hannity, Moore, among other things, pointed that he allegedly presided over a divorce case involving Beverly Young Nelson in 1999, but she never asked for a new judge. He and his team also noted inconsistencies in the yearbook inscription, especially the initials DA, which the media reported as standing for “district attorney,” although Moore was a deputy district attorney. There have also been claims of other anomalies in the handwriting of the inscription and the possibility of different inks being used. “I believe tampering has occurred,” Moore wrote.

Judge Moore’s lawyer has a theory about the signature, Breitbart News reported.

“Judge Moore says he can’t remember ever signing his name with DA after it. But he had seen it before. You know where he had seen it? When he was on the bench, his assistant whose initials are capital D. A., Delbra Adams, would stamp his signature on a document and put capital D. A. That’s exactly how this signature appears on the divorce decree that Judge Moore signed dismissing the divorce action of Beverly Nelson.”

Attorney for AL Senate candidate Roy Moore attempts to cast doubt on accuser Beverly Young-Nelson's account, calling on her to release yearbook that she says Moore signed in 1977: https://t.co/Dv4p1d8gmz pic.twitter.com/K0kfjKsKtt

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 15, 2017

In a CNN interview, Attorney Allred, a Democratic activist with a history of conducting splashy press conferences with no follow-up, seemed unwilling to address whether the signature in question might have been forged and also rejected the idea of allowing her client to take a lie detector test, Big League Politics noted.

In an appearance on MSNBC (embedded below), Allred admitted that she never asked her client whether the accuser actually saw Judge Roy Moore sign the yearbook. The lawyer is requesting a Senate hearing on this matter, although as the MSNBC anchor mentioned, Moore is not yet elected to the Senate, and it is unclear whether he will be after the votes are counted next month.

The former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who was removed from the bench in a dispute over a Ten Commandments monument, and an unsuccessful candidate for governor, Moore, 70, is a West Point graduate who served as a military police commander in Vietnam.

Moore seems to have been convicted in the court of public opinion — at least outside of Alabama — and in the media and government establishments across the ideological spectrum, especially since his accusers have provided compelling details. Given Moore’s longtime high-profile status in the state’s political and legal communities, however, some in Alabama are questioning why these allegations only emerged in the final weeks of a nationally significant election. Moore has argued that the accusations are politically motivated. There is also conflicting information as to whether Roy Moore was banned from the Gadsden shopping mall in the 1980s because of alleged misbehavior.

Beverly Young Nelson said Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore wrote a message in her yearbook in December 1977 that said, "To a sweeter more beautiful girl, I could not say, 'Merry Christmas.'"

She said he signed it, "Roy Moore, D.A." https://t.co/aluJzQsv15 pic.twitter.com/esjGd1ssd9

— CNN (@CNN) November 13, 2017

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has announced that she won’t postpone the upcoming election no matter what. Reacting to speculation that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell might ask Sen. Strange to step down prematurely to trigger a new election timetable (and by implication, a new GOP candidate), Gov. Ivey said, “Were he to resign I would simply appoint somebody to fill the remaining time until we have the election on Dec. 12,” The Hill reported. “Several GOP senators have said Moore should be expelled from the chamber if he wins, and others have floated a write-in campaign for Strange,” The Hill added.

The Judge Roy Moore sexual misconduct allegations and its related fallout continue to be a fast-moving and complex story, so please check this space for updates.

[Featured Image by Dave Martin/AP Images]