Beverly Young Nelson, one of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore’s accusers, told ABC News on Friday that she added notes and an inscription beneath the message and signature from the former Alabama Supreme Court Justice in her high school yearbook.
Beneath his alleged message, Nelson said she added “12-22-77,” the date of when Moore signed her yearbook, and “Olde Hickory House,” the restaurant where Nelson worked and Moore frequented. Moore’s message to Nelson read, “To a sweeter, more beautiful girl I could not say Merry Christmas. Christmas 1977. Love, Roy Moore, D.A.”
However, Nelson never mentioned in her press conference alongside her attorney, Gloria Allred, that she added the notes below Moore’s inscription.
This didn’t stop Moore’s supporters from taking a mile from Nelson’s inch.
“Bombshell: Roy Moore Accuser Beverly Nelson Admits She Forged Yearbook,” reads one headline from Breitbart.
Given the angle that Breitbart is trying to play up and that most people nowadays read a headline and not the actual story, one would assume that Nelson forged the entire note that Moore wrote. However, she didn’t forge anything that actually matters in the case of Moore sexually assaulting her. If her notes (i.e. the date and place listed beneath Moore’s message) had not even been written, it wouldn’t hurt her overall claim about Moore.
An omission of the truth raises questions of Nelson’s story — what part of it is actually the truth and what’s false. And that’s on her. But eight other women who have accused Moore of similar sexual misconduct from harassment to assault shouldn’t be doubted any more or less because of Nelson’s mischaracterizations.
