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GADSDEN, Ala. – Kayla Moore, wife of U.S. Senate Candidate Roy Moore (R), has spread multiple reports calling into question the truth of allegation of sexual misconduct against her husband. One says the restaurant at the center of the latest accusations wasn’t even in operation at the time of the alleged assault. However, a review of records shows that the information she’s spreading is false and that the restaurant was in operation in Gadsden at the time in question.

After our reporting, the post is no longer on Kayla Moore’s Facebook.

The latest allegation, raised Monday by Beverly Young Nelson, alleges Moore violently sexually assaulted her in Gadsden after her shift at a local restaurant, Olde Hickory House. The incident is alleged to have occurred in 1977. Kayla Moore’s Facebook post suggests the restaurant wasn’t open at that time.

Tuesday, WHNT News 19 found a series of records that point to the restaurant’s operations around the time of the alleged incident in December, 1977.

WHNT News 19’s investigative reporter Al Whitaker went to Gadsden Tuesday to examine the claims about the restaurant. At the Gadsden Public Library he found some relevant information, including an ad from the Gadsden Times newspaper, dated Jan. 2, 1978, where the Olde Hickory House is offering customers a New Year’s deal on food.

  • Page from Gadsden Times in early 1978 showing an ad for the Olde Hickory House
  • Page from Gadsden Times in early 1978 showing an ad for the Olde Hickory House
  • Page from Gadsden Times in early 1978 showing an ad for the Olde Hickory House

The library also housed a number of Gadsden city directories. A librarian told us the directories were printed sometime in the year before the date on the spine. The 1978 directory, printed sometime in 1977, shows the Olde Hickory House restaurant listed at 305 Meighan Boulevard. The same is true for the 1979 directory.

The 1977 directory shows the property as vacant, that listing was compiled in 1976. But the Olde Hickory House and its listed owner, D.E. Locklear, were involved in a lawsuit with a plumbing contractor in 1977.

Locklear is listed in Alabama state business records as having started a Gadsden restaurant company in 1964 and records show it operated until 1984.

There is an Old Hickory House BBQ restaurant today in Gadsden, but it’s not the building where the woman said she works and it’s under different ownership, records show.

Nelson claimed Moore, a frequent customer of the Olde Hickory House restaurant, offered her a ride home after her shift. But rather than taking her home, he drove her behind the building, began grabbing her. Nelson said she feared she’d be raped.

Nelson said she resisted and eventually she either fell out or was shoved out of the car.

At her press conference, she showed a high school yearbook she said she received in December 1977 and Moore signed it. According to the inscription presented, Moore offered her compliments, signed his name, the date Dec. 22, 1977, and wrote “Olde Hickory House.”

Moore denied the allegation Monday night, saying the it was false and he neither knew Nelson nor the restaurant.

“I don’t even know the woman. I don’t know anything about her. I don’t even know where the restaurant is or was,” Moore said, blaming the claims on his front-runner status in the Senate race.