by Mary W Maxwell
Yesterday I published an article at Rumor Mill News about the Roy Moore affair. I feel quite certain he is not guilty of the “sexual harassment,” or whatever you call it, that he is accused of, much less of being a pedophile. In that article I said so — in an indirect manner. I’ll say it more directly in this article.
The line-up of who is accusing Moore is handy for separating the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff, etc, in Congress. Several Republican senators came forward promptly to dissociate themselves from Moore, or even to say he can’t join the Senate. What a joke. They have revealed their attachment to “the machine” by so saying.
Is Roy a Sleazy Type?
Having met Roy Moore on the campaign trail, I can say that he strikes me as the epitome of a gentleman and as a disciplined professional person. (You shoulda seen my husband George – 100% disciplined, old-school.)
One of the latest silly accusations against Judge Moore is that he signed a girl’s yearbook with “DA” after his name – but he was only the DDA, the Deputy District Attorney. If you’re asked to sign a yearbook you’d offer a compliment, wouldn’t you? – “Best of luck to a wonderful girl” or something. You would not put your job title after it – not DA, not DDA.
You’d sign just your name — it’s not like when you write a letter of recommendation. It’s extremely implausible that Roy Moore, as a Deputy DA, would even have written DDA, never mind the incorrect DA.
Many persons have now debunked various aspects of “the case against Moore.” They have said that one of the accusers was hired by such-and-such organization, that the tears she shed were not genuine-looking, and so forth. I won’t reproduce that here. I will just go over one case that shows where I stand – with Roy Moore – on balance-of-powers issues.
The Prison Term of Eric
Anna Vollers of the Huntsville Times, wrote an article at AL.com on November 14, 2017. Her slant was toward the credibility of the accusers. Vollers tried to defend her newspaper by saying that its staff had looked through all the cases Moore had judged and identified ones that bore on sexual-abuse claims.
New York Times hopped into this game on November 17. They showed that Moore often disagreed with fellow judges, in a way that makes it look like he was condoning child sexual abuse. The inference could be “If you do it in real life, you will naturally protect others who do it.”
I decided to read one of the cases. (This is the only one I have inspected.)
Eric Higdon was a 17-year-old assistant at a day-care center. He sucked the penis of a 4-year-old boy on at least two occasions. Another mother said he had done the same to her child. Higdon was then duly convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison for “first-degree sodomy of a child under age 12” and for doing so “with forcible compulsion.”
His lawyers took the case to the Court of Criminal Appeals where it was ruled that the state had not proved the second charge, forcible compulsion. Attorney General Luther Strange then appealed that ruling to the Alabama Supreme Court.
At that court, eight of the nine judges went along with the state, and Roy Moore dissented on balance-of-powers grounds. Namely, that the making of the law belongs to the legislature not the judiciary. Please don’t think he let the perpetrator off. Higdon is in prison for 23 years. Moore only objected to the additional charge of forcible compulsion. I’ll quote his dissent here, but recommend you don’t spend time on it. Trust me, it is all about whether the statute provides for charging Higdon with forcible compulsion. It doesn’t.
Judge Moore wrote:
I dissent because I am concerned the Court is stepping into the shoes of the legislature in this case.
Sodomy is an abhorrent crime and should be strictly punished. In this case the defendant, Eric Lemont Higdon, a 17–year–old who worked as an intern at a day-care facility, was convicted under § 13A–6–63(a)(3), Ala.Code 1975, of sodomy in the first degree of a child under 12 years old and was sentenced to 23 years’ imprisonment. He has not challenged that conviction on appeal.
Higdon was also charged under § 13A–6–63(a)(1), Ala.Code 1975, which states: “A person commits the crime of sodomy in the first degree if he engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another by forcible compulsion.” (Emphasis added.) “Forcible compulsion,” in turn, is defined as “[p]hysical force that overcomes earnest resistance or a threat, express or implied, that places another person in fear of immediate death or serious physical injury to himself or another person.
The “implied” threat in the definition of forcible compulsion is not the threat of sexual assault but of “immediate death or serious physical injury.” The legislature has defined serious physical injury as “physical injury which creates a substantial risk of death, or which causes serious and protracted disfigurement, protracted impairment of health, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ.” § 13A–1–2(14), Ala.Code 1975.
Because there was no evidence in this case of an implied threat of serious physical injury under this definition, or of an implied threat of death, Higdon cannot be convicted of sodomy in the first degree “by forcible compulsion.” This Court has previously taken the position that an implied threat under § 13A–6–60(8) may be inferred in cases “concerning the sexual assault of children by adults with whom the children are in a relationship of trust.” See Powe v. State, 597 So.2d 721, 728 (Ala.1991)(emphasis added). Today the Court extends that rule to cases involving sexual assault of children by other children, of perhaps a different age and level of maturity. Although this may be a noble cause in certain situations, policymaking is beyond the role of this Court….
Because the Legislature of Alabama has adopted § 13A–6–63(a)(3), which covered Higdon’s conduct, for which he is being punished, this Court has no “right” or “authority” to make a “new” law to govern conduct between minors the legislature obviously chose not to address. Therefore, because I believe this Court is adding its own rule to the statute, I respectfully dissent.
Constitution Stickler
This “discovery” about Moore’s dissent has led to many, many headlines on websites in the last few days, all parroting the line that he acted in an improper way. The Guardian, wouldn’t you know it, headlined “Roy Moore Cast the Sole Vote in Favor of a Man Who Raped a Four-Year-Old.”
I am happy to support Moore’s constitutional sticklerism, even when it be unpopular. I’m on record okaying his negative gay-marriage decision – strictly on states’ rights grounds, in spite of my being a supporter of gay marriage. My stance is “You either have the Constitution or you don’t.” The Constitution calls for states’ rights. I am glad that Moore dug his heels in, at least prior to the ruling in Obergefell which gave every American the right to marry.
I am also glad he dug his heels in on balance-of-power grounds in the Higdon case. Frankly I think 23 years is too heavy a sentence for a 17 year-old (and that we ought to pay more attention to the really cruel pedophiles – see below). But that was not part of the issue.
Now I’ll quote a statement by a young man that’s being used to criticize Roy Moore on the “basis” of his sexual “sins.”
Brett Walton said this:
“I served as the Chairman of the Auburn University College Republicans. I voted for President Trump. So I am not a Democrat, Independent or even what some would call a Moderate Republican. However, I cannot support Roy Moore. The allegations against him are sickening, and the sources appear to be credible. I was willing to look past Judge Moore making Alabama look foolish by riding around on his horse brandishing his gun like a wannabe cowboy, but enough is enough. I may fundamentally disagree with Doug Jones on many issues, but he at least seems to be a respectable man …. I sincerely hope that my fellow Alabamians will not stand by any longer and let Roy Moore continue to degrade what it means to be a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican.” – Brett Walton, an accountant. [Emphasis added]
I’ve written four articles supporting Moore and this is my last, OK? The sexual harassment thing is a media-created problem and I refuse to be distracted from more important issues.
Alabamians, please vote for Moore. Please don’t fall prey to liars.
Senators, ditch Mitch as “leader” of the Senate.
Americans, turn your attention to vital matters especially of our killing of Mother Nature. And for that matter, the real pedophile issue known as Pizzagate. It’s much more vicious than you think. Look at this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4dcaaCwy6k&pbjreload=10
–Mary can be contacted at mary.maxwell@alumni.adelaide.edu.au
Darling readers,
This is the first time our editor Dee has used pop-ups of previous Gumshoe articles instead of embedded links. Whaddaya think?
I think it’s a bit confusing. Maybe they should be smaller or have some sort of frame, so we know what’s going on. But it’s fun to see my Pride picture. If you go into that article you’ll also see my shot of the State House, practically the first selfie I ever did. I must send a copy to Guv Ivey.
Ah, thanks for the red frames, Your Bossness. Maybe a touch of overkill but it looks nice.
Bit confusing at first, but if it adds to the main story under discussion, then its a good idea. I’ve been watching the Moore thing unfold too and to me its all about the use of an accusation as a weapon. These allegations will never be answered in any Court. Their only purpose is to exist as spoilers. I suspected his dissents were questions of Law, not questions of character.
It is amazing how many people went for the formula “If it’s a woman, she must have been unable to speak out, so now we owe it to her to hear her side and we must not publicly question her.”
Thanks Paul.
Wait a minute. I don’t include the Repub senators who said that. They weren’t born yesterday. I am sure a little birdie told them to chuck Moore out of the race.
In favor of a Dem. Which may lose them the senate. Hmmm.
“It is amazing how many people went for the formula “If it’s a woman, she must have been unable to speak out, so now we owe it to her to hear her side and we must not publicly question her.”
The lady who made an allegation of a 1985 rape against Bill Shorten a year or so back deserves a full media platform to tell her story on this basis. Any women (or men) searching for long delayed “justice” over a sexual incident will only find a sympathetic ear if there is a political benefit for someone in shredding the accused.
Wow… this is extraordinary
All very well(Breaking News clip), but I’d have to question the need to disprove anything wrapped up in insobriety. The situation really calls for an analysis of the obsession with having morally pure Statesmen.
This is interesting:
“Socrates valued rationality (appealing to logic, not emotion) as the proper means for persuasion, the discovery of truth, and the determinant for one’s actions. To Socrates, truth, not aretē (moral virtue), was the greater g[3]ood, and each person should, above all else, seek truth to guide one’s life. Therefore, Socrates opposed the Sophists and their teaching of rhetoric as art and as emotional oratory requiring neither logic nor proof.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic
As is the fact that each and every one of ancient Israel’s great leaders had major personal issues (the Hollywood depiction of King David is completely skewed).
As is the “thorn in the flesh” borne by Christ’s no 1 ambassador :
“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.” 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7
Here ya go, Berry:
“Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) was caught on a hot mic Saturday commenting that the Republican Party is “toast” if it becomes the party of President Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, both of whom are subject to multiple serious allegations of sexual misconduct.”
“Therefore, because I believe this Court is adding its own rule to the statute, I respectfully dissent.”
I concur with Judge Moore, I always hated it when the judges would “move the goal posts”. This issue goes to the independence of the judiciary, however there are way too many judges that believe they are ‘servants of the Crown’.
Thanks, Terry. When I was a layperson – ahem – in the 20th century, I assumed it was proper for a judge to look at a situation and construct a response. I did not know, till I got to law school and had the phrase “parliamentary supremacy” drubbed into me, that judges were supposed to apply the law, not make the law.
Funnily enough when I was growing up in Boston there were plenty of eggs thrown at a judge who ordered “school bussing.” I think his name was Garrity. Everybody said “This is so bad for the children, both white and black.”
But when I went to Mobile Alabama this year and spoke to a real leader (a white guy who is color-blind), he said that bussing was the best thing that ever happened to Mobile – and that the court order for it IS STILL IN FORCE!
The unfortunate truth is that, even amongst those who are well and truly aware that contempt for judicial restrictions and requirements is the heart & soul of the NWO, scarcely anyone is prepared to carry the cost of personal resistance.
The issue presented by the respective case is of course the fact that young children are being handed over to “gov-approved” strangers who, due to chronic overload, can’t even administer clinical supervision let alone carry out anything that could be called “care”. The attempt to patch up a mere symptom is a dead give-away.
“aware that contempt for judicial restrictions and requirements is the heart & soul of the New World Order, scarcely anyone is prepared to carry the cost of personal resistance.”
Berry, you are one who did it and found the cost to be extremely heavy, right?
When you say “care” do you mean ordinary day-care centers?
May I point our that the McMartin pre-school case of (amazing) pedophilia got so far as to be proven in court, but then US Attorneys stepped in and squelched the mothers.
They deserve vindication. By the way, in the above video of Moore I feel vindicated as to the yearbook — an experience I almost never have, in fact I can’t think of another instance! You would know this, Berry, you plow on and plow on, always on some kind of hope.
See my Gumshoe article “Are the Powerful Going To Collapse?” I suspect they’re running out of personnel for the top-top positions, but I sure don’t think the masses will ever rise up.
Oopsies. The editorial board of al.com has just published this (Nov 18 at 9pm):
This election is a turning point for women in Alabama. A chance to make their voices heard in a state that has silenced them for too long.
The accusations against Roy Moore have been horrifying, but not shocking.
Every day new allegations arise that illustrate a pattern of a man in his 30s strutting through town like the cock of the walk, courting and preying on young women and girls. And though Roy Moore has denied the accusations of these women, his own platform and record is hostile to so many Alabamians. [Love the nonsequitur]
Unlike the national party, the Alabama Republican establishment has chosen to stand by him, attacking and belittling the brave women who have come forward.
As a news organization, we have independently investigated stories of several Alabama woman who have spoken to us and the Washington Post about the abuse they say they suffered at the hands of Roy Moore decades ago.
The seriousness of these incidents, including one involving a 14-year-old child [that was the underwear episode] cannot be overstated.
So, who needs Courts anymore? We have media to hand out the pitchforks and point our outrage in the required, correct direction.
In the aria “Is there not one maiden breast?” G&S painted the pirate Frederic, looking down and out, pleading (soliciting) with three women who are pretty but uninterested. For some reason, a modern director has turned this around.
Start at 4 minutes. If you don’t die laughing, let me know:
.
Dunno why they just don’t leave trials and judgements up to the media, they’re all ways right ar’nt they?
Hang on, perhaps they could use the prosecution and the police as the jury.