Leigh Corfman, the first woman to accuse Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore of molestation and sexual assault, said Monday that she decided a few times not to go public with her story, and only agreed to talk to the Washington Post if they were able to find other victims.
“The Washington Post sought me out. I didn’t go looking for this. It fell in my lap,” Corfman told NBC about her decision to talk about Moore.
“I had to make a decision and I told them that at that time — the reporters who were all just wonderful to me — that if they found additional people, that I would tell my story,” Corfman added, but did not explain how the Post became aware of her experiences 40 years earlier.
WATCH: Leigh Corfman, 1st Roy Moore accuser, explains to @savannahguthrie why she waited years to share her story pic.twitter.com/bNPCphV8XQ— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 20, 2017
Corfman said Moore sexually assaulted her in 1979 when she was 14 years old and he was 32, and that she told people about the two incidents with Moore.
“I did tell people. My family knew, family friends knew, my friends knew. I spent a lot of time every time he came up railing against, you know, him and what he had done to me when I was 14 years old,” Corfman said.
She recalled going to confront Moore in 2000 or 2001, but then deciding against the idea.
“I was a single parent and when you’re in that situation you do everything you can to protect your own,” Corfman explained. “And I sat in the courthouse parking lot and thought, you know, ‘I’m going in. I’m going to confront him.’ And this is about 2000, 2001. And I wanted to walk into his office and say, ‘Hey remember me. You need to knock this stuff off. You need to go public.’ My children were small so I didn’t do it.”
“The second time, I actually sat down with my children who were then junior high and elementary school and I told them a high overview and gave them the ability to make the decision. They were afraid that with all their social connections they would be castigated in their groups. And we decided together that we wouldn’t do it at that time,” she added.
Corfman first went public with her story on Nov. 9. Since then, at least eight other women have alleged inappropriate sexual advances from Moore when he was in his early 30s.
