Moore's Campaign Jumps On Accuser's Yearbook Clarification

Beverly Young Nelson acknowledges she added to the inscription
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 9, 2017 5:00 AM CST
Moore Accuser Refines Story of Yearbook Inscription
Beverly Young Nelson the latest accuser of Alabama Republican Roy Moore, shows her high school yearbook signed by Moore, at a news conference, in New York, Monday, Nov. 13, 2017.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

It's likely the most talked about 1977 yearbook in the country, and that status only intensified on Friday. Roy Moore accuser Beverly Young Nelson has said Moore signed her yearbook while pursuing a sexual relationship with her when she was 16; she accuses him of sexually assaulting her in a parking lot after offering her a ride home from the restaurant where she worked. Moore has demanded Nelson hand over the yearbook so an expert can examine it. In an appearance on Good Morning America Friday, Nelson admitted to elaborating on the inscription herself. She says Moore wrote this: "To a sweeter, more beautiful girl I could not say, 'Merry Christmas' 1977. Love, Roy Moore D.A." But she says she wrote "12-22-1977 Old Hickory House," which appears below the signature.

Nelson says he signed her yearbook before the alleged assault. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, later on Friday said Nelson added to the inscription to "remind herself of who Roy Moore was, and where and when Mr. Moore signed her yearbook," reports USA Today. The Guardian notes Olde Hickory House was the restaurant Nelson worked at in Gadsden, Alabama. It adds that until Friday, "the entire note was initially assumed to have been written by Moore" (though the added portion is written in a different hand). The AP reports Moore has said he doesn't know Nelson or that restaurant. Allred says a handwriting expert has verified the signature as Moore's; Moore's campaign counters that Nelson's admission indicates they lied when they initially presented the yearbook. "What they said then was either a lie or what they said today was a lie," says Moore's lawyer. (More Roy Moore stories.)

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