Although 2017 was a turbulent year of tax reformations, travel bans, and a president who tweets how his nuclear button is bigger than Kim Jong Un’s button, it was also a year of accountability. With the #MeToo movement rapidly growing and having “The Silence Breakers” as TIME’s Person Of The Year, the country is moving toward having more voices who have been routinely silenced be heard for the first time.
Leigh Corfman, one of the five women who accused Alabama Politician Roy Moore of sexual assault while they were in their teens and he was in his 30s, sued Roy Moore for defamation on Thursday, reports The Washington Post.
Corfman said she was 14 when Moore, 32 at the time, initiated a sexual encounter with her. Moore said in response the allegations in a statement that they are, “completely false and a desperate political attack.”
Like many women and men who have come forward recently for a crime committed against them in the past, there are limited ways Corfman can take legal action against Moore because of the statute of limitations. Each state has statutes of limitations that determines how long the state has to charge someone with a crime. The felony charges for Moore would have expired by now, so a way for Corfman to seek damages for sexual assault is by filing the defamation lawsuit.
For Corfman to prove her case, she will have to prove that what Moore has said about her were false statements of fact and because she is a private citizen, she must prove negligence — that Moore failed to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances — and she must show damages or perceived damages to her reputation.
According to Corfman’s lawyer, she is not seeking financial compensation beyond legal costs, but she is asking for a public apology from Moore as well as for him and his campaign to have a ban on publicly attacking her again.
If you want to read Leigh Corfman’s suit against Roy Moore, click here.
Photo by Blogtrepreneur via Flickr Creative Commons
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