Staff Report –

Former judge and Senate candidate Roy Moore’s attempt to convince a judge to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against him failed Wednesday when Montgomery County Circuit Judge Roman Ashley Shaul denied his motion to dismiss the case and scheduled a formal court hearing for April 12.

Former judge Roy Moore speaks at Oak Hollow Farm in Fairhope with his wife Kayla beside the stage with one week to go in U.S Senate race in Alabma, Dec. 5, 2017: Photo by Glynn Wilson

Leigh Corfman of Gadsden filed the lawsuit in January charging Moore with attempting to damage her reputation by lying about knowing her during his bid for the U.S. Senate last year and sexually assaulting her when she was 14 and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney in Etowah County.

The news originally broke in the Washington Post, and along with allegations by other women who accused Moore of sexual misconduct, roiled the special election in December won by Birmingham attorney Doug Jones, the first Democrat to hold a seat in the U.S. Senate from Alabama in a quarter century.

Attorneys for Ms. Corfman had argued that since a New York Supreme Court judge had ruled in a similar case that President Donald Trump was not above the law, neither was Roy Moore.

The judge also denied a motion by Moore’s lawyer to hold oral arguments on dismissing the case and refused his request for a change of venue to move the trial to Etowah County.

“We’re gratified by the court’s ruling and that Leigh will now have an opportunity to prove her case in court,” said Neil Roman, one of Ms. Corfman’s attorneys, in a statement after the ruling.

During the campaign, Moore repeatedly denied the allegations put forward by Ms. Corfman and other young women who charged him with making unwanted romantic or sexual advances when they were in their teens. He continues to deny knowing the women or making sexual advances toward them in court.

Moore’s attorneys also requested that discovery be delayed until the judge ruled on the motion to dismiss and a change of venue. In the hearing schedule for April 12, the judge said in his order he would “hear arguments on possible discovery limitations.”

Moore and his campaign committee “defamed Ms. Corfman, repeatedly and in all forms of media, calling her a liar and questioning her motivation for publicly disclosing that Mr. Moore sexually abused her in 1979 when she was a 14-year-old high school freshman and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney,” according to the lawsuit.

A lawsuit filed by Moore in December in what turned out to be a failed attempt to question the certification of the election results was filed in Montgomery County, according to Ms. Corfman’s attorneys. In the filing, Moore’s attorneys described Corfman as making “false and malicious attacks.”

In Moore’s failed attempt to have the case dismissed, Moore’s attorneys argued that comments made by a political candidate on the campaign stump should be protected speech and a candidate should be allowed to defend himself against allegations such as those raised by Corfman. The judge disagreed, allowing the case to go to trial.