A Gadsden woman says Roy Moore groped her while she was in his law office on legal business with her mother in 1991. Moore was married at that time.

In the past week, Moore has been accused by five other women of a range of behaviors that include sexual misconduct with a woman when she was 14, and sexual assault of another when she was 16. This is the first public accusation of physical contact that happened after Moore was married.

In recent days, Moore has publicly denied any wrongdoing, and has denied knowing some of the women.

Tina Johnson

In interviews with AL.com, Tina Johnson recalls that in the fall of 1991 she sat in the law office of then-attorney Roy Moore on Third Street in Gadsden. Her mother, Mary Katherine Cofield, sat in the chair next to her. Moore sat behind his desk, across from them. Johnson remembers she was wearing a black and white dress.

Almost from the moment she walked in to Moore's office, Johnson said, Moore began flirting with her.

"He kept commenting on my looks, telling me how pretty I was, how nice I looked," recalled Johnson. "He was saying that my eyes were beautiful."

It made her uncomfortable. "I was thinking, can we hurry up and get out of here?"

Johnson was 28 years old, in a difficult marriage headed toward divorce, and unemployed. She was at the office to sign over custody of her 12-year-old son to her mother, with whom he'd been living. Her mother had hired Moore to handle the custody petition.

Johnson had two young daughters at the time with her then-husband, and her son said he wanted to live with his grandmother.

At one point during the meeting, she said, Moore came around the desk and sat on the front of it, just inches from her. He was so close, she said, she could smell his breath.

According to Johnson, he asked questions about her young daughters, including what color eyes they had and if they were as pretty as she was. She said that made her feel uncomfortable, too.

Once the papers were signed, she and her mother got up to leave. After her mother walked through the door first, she said, Moore came up behind her.

It was at that point, she recalled, he grabbed her buttocks.

"He didn't pinch it; he grabbed it," said Johnson. She was so surprised she didn't say anything. She didn't tell her mother.

She said she told her sister years later how Moore had made her feel uncomfortable during that meeting. Her sister told AL.com she remembers the conversation.

Johnson reached out to AL.com earlier this week to talk about her experience with Moore.

AL.com located the court documents from 1991, detailing the custody transfer. Cofield's petition for custody is signed by Roy S. Moore, attorney. It lists his address as 924 Third Avenue, Gadsden.

Johnson has had ups and downs in her life, both before and after she met Moore. She has pled guilty to writing bad checks, and for third-degree theft of property, which she said stemmed from family disagreement over the care of her late stepfather.

Since marrying her husband, Morris Johnson, in 2010, she said she has been working to improve her life.

"I'm not perfect," she said. "I have things in my background and I know (the public) will jump on anything, but (what happened with Moore) is still the truth, and the truth will stand when the world won't."

Johnson, who is now disabled, considers herself a devout Christian and regularly attends a church near her home in Gadsden. She said she is not political and doesn't follow politics. She said she has not spoken with Moore since that day in his office, and does not know any of the five other women who have come forward with accusations against him.

"This is not a politics thing with me," she said. "It's more of a moral and religious thing." It has bothered her over the years to see Moore on TV, talking about his Christian faith.

She wanted to come forward publicly now, she said, because it's hard for victims of harassment to talk openly about their experiences.

"I want people to know that it's OK to finally say something," she said. "I guess I'm ashamed I didn't say nothing, didn't turn around and slap him."

A spokesperson for the Roy Moore campaign contacted in advance had not given AL.com a response by publication time.

'All the time'

In 1982, Kelly Harrison Thorp was working as a hostess at the Red Lobster restaurant in Gadsden. She was 17 years old and a high school senior.

One day Roy Moore came into the restaurant, and she recognized him.

"He was a public figure in this small town," she said of Moore, who at the time was in his early 30s and the deputy district attorney for Etowah County. Later that year he would mount an unsuccessful campaign for circuit court judge.

Thorp said Moore asked her if she'd go out with him sometime.

"I just kind of said, 'Do you know how old I am?'" she recalled.

"And he said, 'Yeah. I go out with girls your age all the time.'"

Thorp said she turned him down and told him she had a boyfriend. She said he then walked away.

Thorp said she later told a family member but did not tell the story publicly. She moved away from Gadsden the following year, and has just recently moved back.

Thorp knows one of Moore's accusers, Leigh Corfman, who told The Washington Post that Moore had a sexual encounter with her when she was 14. Thorp believes Corfman's story and said she is proud of her for telling it publicly.

In an interview on Sean Hannity's radio show last Friday, Moore said he did not "generally" date girls in their late teens when he was in his early 30s.

"If I did, you know, I'm not going to dispute anything," he said, "but I don't remember anything like that."

Why now

As more GOP leaders - including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell - are calling for Moore to step aside, he has given no indication he plans to do so. He still has a lead in most polls.

One question often levied at the accusers is why they didn't come forward publicly before now, a month away from the special election for Alabama senator. Moore has been a public and often controversial figure in Alabama politics for decades.

It's an issue both Johnson and Thorp wanted to address.

Thorp said local women have not spoken publicly against Moore before now because he had power in town and in the state, and they didn't think they would be believed.

"Everybody knew it wouldn't matter," she said, "that he would get elected anyway because his supporters are never going to believe anything bad about him."

Johnson said the answer was even more simple.

"It's because somebody asked," she said. "If anybody had asked, we would have told it. No one asked."

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