Roy Moore Accuser's Home Burns Down in Apparent Arson

Sheriff's office says it doesn't appear related to Moore or allegations against him
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 5, 2018 6:43 PM CST
Roy Moore Accuser's Home Burns Down in Apparent Arson
In this Dec. 12, 2017 file photo, former US Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks to the media after he rode in on a horse to vote in Gallant, Ala.   (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

One of the women to have accused Roy Moore of sexual misconduct saw her home burn down this week in a fire authorities are investigating as arson, AL.com reports. "I am devastated, just devastated," Tina Johnson says. "We have just the clothes on our backs." The fire started at Johnson's home in Gadsden, Alabama, on Wednesday morning while she and her husband were at work and their grandson was at school. Neighbors and utility workers called 911, but the fire department was unable to extinguish the flames before Johnson's home and possessions were destroyed. Her family is currently living out of a motel.

The sheriff's department says it has spoken to a "suspect of interest" and doesn't "believe that the fire is in any way related to Roy Moore or allegations made against him." Instead, Johnson says neighbors saw a man with a history of public intoxication walking around her house prior to and during the fire. "He's been trouble in the neighborhood for a while," one neighbor says. In November, Johnson joined a number of women in leveling sexual misconduct allegations against Moore, who was running for US Senate. She said he groped her and made inappropriate comments when she visited his office in 1991, the Washington Post reports. He was married at the time. “I was so humiliated and sickened,” NBC News quotes Johnson as saying of the incident. (Another Moore accuser sued the failed Senate candidate for defamation this week.)

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