Pair Of Women Who Worked At Alabama Mall Add Their Names To Growing List Of Roy Moore Accusers

Just hours after a sixth woman came forward alleging that Roy Moore “grabbed” her inappropriately at his law office in 1991, the Washington Post is reporting that two more women had similar experiences with the current GOP Senate nominee in Alabama.

According to the report, the two women worked at a Sears store at a mall in Gadsden, Alabama, where Moore was a frequent visitor. One of the two women was in high school.

More from the report:

Gena Richardson says she was a high school senior working in the men’s department of Sears at the Gadsden Mall when a man approached her and introduced himself as Roy Moore.

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Richardson says Moore — now a candidate for U.S. Senate — asked her where she went to school, and then for her phone number, which she says she declined to give, telling him that her father, a Southern Baptist preacher, would never approve.

Of course, Moore didn’t let Richardson’s refusal to give out her phone number stop him from trying to get a date with her. So what did he do? He phoned her high school, where they pulled her out of class to take the call.

More from the report:

A few days later, she says, she was in trigonometry class at Gadsden High when she was summoned to the principal’s office over the intercom in her classroom. She had a phone call.

 

“I said ‘Hello?’” Richardson recalls. “And the male on the other line said, ‘Gena, this is Roy Moore.’ I was like, ‘What?!’ He said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m in trig class.’ ”

 

Richardson says Moore asked her out again on the call. A few days later, after he asked her out at Sears, she relented and agreed, feeling both nervous and flattered. They met that night at a movie theater in the mall after she got off work, a date that ended with Moore driving her to her car in a dark parking lot behind Sears and giving her what she called an unwanted, “forceful” kiss that left her scared.

According to the report, Richardson – who is a moderate Republican – said she didn’t want to see Moore again after the incident.

The Washington Post noted that the account by Richardson was “corroborated by classmate and Sears co-worker Kayla McLaughlin, is among four women who say Moore pursued them when they were teenagers or young women working at the mall — from Sears at one end to the Pizitz department store at the other.”

The newspaper spoke to “a dozen people who worked at the mall or hung out there as teenagers during the late ’70s and early ’80s.” Those sources said Moore could frequently be seen at the mall “walking around alone, leaning on counters, spending enough time in the stores, especially on weekend nights.”

“Some of the young women who worked there said they became uncomfortable” by his constant presence, the Post added.

These deeply troubling revelations follow earlier reporting that Moore was banned from an Alabama mall in the 1980s for “prowling the mall” and trying to repeatedly pick up teenage girls.

This type of behavior shouldn’t just bar Moore from visiting the neighborhood mall. It should also disqualify him from stepping foot inside the United States Senate.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.