Beverly Nelson is alleging Roy Moore sexually assaulted her in 1977, forty years ago. Roy Moore denies the allegations. In a November 11, 2017 news conference, Nelson made the statement below. Following that, you will see my deception analysis.

“I got into his car in the passenger seat. He began driving. I thought he would get on the highway, but instead he drove to the back of the restaurant. I was not immediately alarmed as there was an exit from the back of the restaurant to the street and he could drive from there to my house without getting on the highway. However instead of driving to the street he stopped the car and parked his car in between the dumpster and the back of the restaurant where there were no lights. The area was dark and deserted. I was alarmed and I immediately asked him what he was doing.

Instead of answering my question, Mr. Moore reached over and began groping me, putting his hands on my breasts. I tried to open my car door to leave, but he reached over and locked it so I could not get out. I tried fighting him off, while yelling at him to stop, but instead of stopping he began squeezing my neck attempting to force my head onto his crotch. I continued to struggle. I was determined that I was not going to allow him to force me to have sex with him. I was terrified. He was also trying to pull my shirt off. I thought that he was going to rape me. I was twisting and struggling and begging him to stop. I had tears running down my face.

At some point he gave up. He then looked at me and said, “you are a child. I am the District attorney of Etiwah County. If you tell anyone about this, no one will believe you.” He finally allowed me to open the car door and I either fell out or he pushed me out. I was on the ground as he pulled out of the parking area behind the restaurant. The passenger door was still open as he burned rubber pulling away leaving me lying there on this cold concrete in the dark.”

There is quite a bit of information to be gathered in the above three paragraphs.

Changing Pronouns

Beverly starts out calling Mr. Moore’s car, his car. Use of the personal pronoun shows ownership. She then changed it to the car, that shows lack of commitment to the statement, then she again went back to he parked his car. The inconsistent pronoun usage is noteworthy.

Change in Personal Dictionary

The same is true when she goes from talking about “my car door” to “the car door”. She also changes from calling it “my car door” to “the passenger door.” People don’t change their personal dictionary in the middle of a story without reason. This shows lack of commitment to the statement.

Changing Details

First, she said that he parked in a dark and deserted area between a dumpster and the back of the restaurant. Then she changed it that he was pulling out of the parking area. Was it the parking area or was it a dark and deserted area? The change in description is noteworthy.

Inconsistent Actions

Nelson says that Moore reached over to grope her, then reached over to lock the door so she could not get out. This would be a good place for an interviewer to probe further. If he reached over to her car door, reaching over her, he would have pushed the button down next to her to lock it, why couldn’t she unlock it if she was right next to it?

Gaps in Time

Identify gaps in time. This is where the omitted details are likely to be. However, more than just for the sake of brevity, deceptive people intentionally omit significant details.  Words and phrases that are commonly inserted to skip over those areas they do not want to talk about include: The next thing I knew, the next thing I remember, at some point, finally, after a while, later, or later on.  She’s giving great detail throughout her statement about what happened forty years ago including specifics such as what she was doing at each moment, what he was doing, how she was feeling, what he was wearing, what she said, what he said – but then skips over chunks of time.  Gaps in time are one of the most common places a lie will occur.

Inappropriate Verbs

Are the verbs appropriate and as you would expect them to be? For example, if someone was retelling a story about being attacked but she said, “He [the alleged attacker] SAID, “Don’t look at me.” Would it be appropriate to use the verb “said”?  Or if the attack really happened, would he have more likely “yelled,”, “demanded,”, or even “told” her not to look at him. “Said” is an inappropriate verb to describe what supposedly was taking place.

The same is true when talking about a vehicle burning rubber but yet it pulled out of the area.  You would expect a more appropriate verb such as sped off or tore out of there, not that he pulled out. Inappropriate verb usage is an indicator the statement is being made up.

Articles

Articles are words that define a noun as specific or unspecific. Articles determine ownership vs. distance, and familiarity vs. stranger. “…leaving me lying on “this” cold concrete.” “This concrete” indicate she’s mentioned it before or there’s familiarity or closeness with that particular area of concrete. Yet it is the first time it has come up in her statement. This is important because if someone is trying to convince you of something random, unknown or unspecific, but uses articles that indicate familiarity, such as “this”, then there is deception occurring.

You can see there are a number of inconsistent details in her statement that warrant further consideration to find out why she said what she did and in the manner that she said it.

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As Managing Director of Concealed Statements I work with men and women who want to increase their deception awareness to avoid wasting time or money and avoid making poor decisions based on inaccurate information.

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