ANNISTON, Ala. (Legal Newsline) – A federal jury has awarded former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore more than $8 million in his defamation lawsuit over an ad that ran during his failed U.S. Senate campaign that he claimed portrayed him as a child predator.
On Aug. 12, a jury in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled for Moore on all eight questions it was presented and decided on an award of $8.2 million against Senate Majority PAC. At issue was a political advertisement that the jury found placed Moore in a “false light (that) would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.”
The ad said Moore was banned from his local mall for soliciting sex from young girls. Judge Corey Maze in May rejected a motion for summary judgment by Senate Majority PAC, setting the stage for the August trial.
The ad ran during the final weeks of the 2017 election to fill the vacated seat of Jeff Sessions, who had resigned to become U.S. Attorney General.
Quoting from news reports, the ad read:
“Moore was actually banned from the Gadsden Mall… for soliciting sex from young girls”
-New American Journal, 11/12/2017
“One he approached ‘was 14 and working as Santa’s helper.’”
-AL.com, 11/13/2017
Senate Majority PAC and Waterfront Strategies countered the ad was true when the statements were read separately (Moore said they had to be taken as one because they were displayed together and that he’d never solicited sex from the girl working as Santa’s helper).
“(V)iewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Moore, the court finds that telling viewers that Moore was banned from the mall for soliciting sex from a 14-year—old Santa’s Helper is more stinging than telling viewers that Moore complimented a 14-year-old girl on her appearance or telling them more generally that Moore was banned from the mall for soliciting young girls,” Maze wrote in May.
“The jury must decide whether the substance or sting of the juxtaposed ad was justified.”
The defendants also argued they reasonably believed Moore had solicited sex from the girl, Wendy Miller. They claimed given the news coverage of his behavior at the Gadsden Mall, Moore must have been in the process of soliciting a physical relationship when he told her she was pretty.
“But just like the defendants’ intent is a question of fact for the jury, the defendants’ belief about Moore’s intent when he approached Miller is a question of fact for the jury decide,” Maze wrote.
Miller told the Washington Post that Moore asked her out on dates in the presence of her mother when she was 16 years old.