News accounts quote multiple neighbors as saying that Roy Moore’s pursuit of young girls was “common knowledge” and “not a big secret” around Gadsden, Alabama. The accounts support the four women who have come forward to share their own accounts of Moore’s conduct when they were young teenage girls, including one who accuses Moore of molesting her at 14.
What is interesting is that most of these witnesses are on the record and not anonymous. Blake Usry, for example, has said that Moore’s creepy preoccupation with young girls was known for 30 years and that locals would talk about how surprising it was that the allegations had not been discovered by the media for so long.
The latest allegation is that Moore would regularly walk around the local mall to meet young girls. It is a familiar pattern to law enforcement that often warns that malls are the favorite locations of pedophiles and sexual predators. The mall opened in 1974 and was the popular hangout for teens.
Various women have come forward to support the account of Moore’s suspicious conduct. While in his 30s and district attorney, these sources say that he would regularly prowl the mall and flirt with young girls.
Jason Nelms says that he was told that the mall had a constant watch out for Moore as a potential danger to young girls. Likewise, Greg Legat who worked a music store near Sears in the mall said that an off-duty Gadsden police officer named J.D. Thomas asked him to keep an eye out for three people, pickpocket, a brawler, and Roy Moore.
As we previously discussed with regard to Moore’s threat of a defamation lawsuit, these allegations should be relatively to prove or disprove. If Moore was on a watch list at the mall, there should be a record or at least additional witnesses. If he was on that watch list, it would be a chilling notion that a man who was not allowed in a local mall could gain entry to the United States Senate.