The judge hearing Roy Moore’s defamation lawsuit in Etowah County against multiple defendants gutted the case in an order Monday and dismissed all claims against Leigh Corfman. The judge also booted five of the six counts against the four remaining defendants.
The lawsuit, filed in April 2018 in Moore’s hometown of Gadsden, brought claims against women who made accusations against Moore in 2017 -- a month before the U.S. Senate special election that Moore narrowly lost to Doug Jones.
Corfman’s claims, made to The Washington Post and published on Nov. 9, 2017, were perhaps the most prominent as she told of an intimate encounter with Moore when she was 14 years old. The incident, which she said occurred in 1979, included Moore removing her outer clothing, touching her over her bra and underpants and guiding Corfman’s hand to touch him over his underpants, according to Corfman. Moore has denied the incident took place, including under oath at trial in January.
That trial essentially made claims moot against Corfman in Etowah County, Circuit Judge Jack Meigs said in his order. That case, filed in January 2018 by Corfman in Montgomery County and counterclaimed by Moore, resolved the question of defamation by either party. After a week-long trial, a jury found that Corfman did not defame Moore and Moore did not defame Corfman. The same claims cannot be taken up in a different court, the judge ruled.
The Etowah County case had been put on hold pending the outcome of the...
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