BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Faye Gary, a former police officer with the Gadsden Police Department in Alabama, has been featured in the news in recent days making the unsubstantiated claim that she was told to protect young cheerleaders from Roy Moore at local ballgames.
Speaking in a Breitbart News interview on Wednesday, Gary falsely claimed that Moore “wanted to keep segregation here in the south.”
She then claimed that Moore “hates Jews. He hates blacks. He hates Muslims. He hates gays.”
When challenged for specifics, Gary conceded that “I don’t know exactly what he said about Jews, but he doesn’t like Muslims. I know he doesn’t like Muslims. It is my personal feeling that he doesn’t like blacks.”
When further petitioned to support her charges, especially her claim that Moore “hates blacks” and supports segregation, Gary further admitted, “I am not sure. That is my feeling.”
The news media in recent days uncritically featured Gary making the undocumented claim on MSNBC that as a police officer “we were also told to watch him at the ball games to make sure that he didn’t hang around the cheerleaders.”
The news media seemingly failed to vet Gary, with numerous articles and the MSNBC interview not mentioning that Moore was the prosecutor in an 1982 high profile case that sent her brother, Jimmy Wright, to prison on charges of possession of a controlled substance. This after a second charge, unlawful sale of a controlled substance, was dropped.
The case was known locally as the “drugs in the mouth” case because, according to the state’s evidence, Wright allegedly tried to hide cocaine wrapped in foil in his mouth while his home was being searched. The Gadsden Times on April 9, 1982, documented how in his closing arguments, Moore put wrapped foil in his mouth that was ten times larger than the foil allegedly found on Wright in order to demonstrate that such a feat was possible.
Speaking to Breitbart News, Gary claimed that she was not motivated by anger over Moore’s involvement in convicting her brother.
“Really, I had forgotten all about the case on my brother,” she stated. “That had nothing to do with why my making the statements that I made. I made this statement because the women came out. I had no reason to make it before then. I didn’t even think about Roy Moore.”
Unprompted, Gary referred to herself in third person to deny ever being arrested on drug charges even though she was not asked whether she was arrested on drug charges and there is no information to indicate that she was. “Faye Gary has never been arrested for drugs because Faye Gary doesn’t do drugs,” she stated.
Criminal documents reviewed by Breitbart News show that in addition to her brother, Gary’s son was also arrested on drug charges in 2008 but he was killed before trial. Her grandson is currently in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of distribution of cocaine. Gary discussed both cases in our interview, but she said that the matters should not impact her credibility.
The news media did such little vetting of Gary that many major publications reporting on the MSNBC interview got her last name wrong as did MSNBC. During the segment, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell correctly introduced the ex-cop as “Faye Gary, a retired Gadsden, Alabama, police officer.” In the middle of the 3-minute interview, a graphic on screen incorrectly labeled Gary as “Faye Gray.” Mitchell then ended the segment by correctly thanking “Faye Gary” for the interview.
Numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Vice, the Seattle Times, and AOL.com wrongly reported her last name as Gray. The New York Times used her correct last name, Gary.
A simple Google search would have brought up Gary’s Facebook page, which has her correct last name.
During the interview with this reporter, Gary made numerous unsupported allegations against Moore before conceding that she could not prove her case.
“No, I don’t like his politics,” Gary stated when asked about her own political beliefs. “Because he hates Jews. He hates blacks. He hates Muslim. He hates Gays. And I don’t know how he can hide behind the Ten Commandments and people can believe him that he is speaking truth. And he speaks hate toward these people and these other races.”
Gary went on to claim that Moore “wanted to keep segregation here in the south.”
Here is a transcript of the ensuing exchange:
KLEIN: He (Moore) said that he wanted to keep segregation in the South?
GARY: You can search the records. You will find it.
KLEIN: What about Jews? What did he ever say about Jews?
GARY: I don’t know exactly what he said about Jews, but he doesn’t like Muslims. I know he doesn’t like Muslims. It is my personal feeling that he doesn’t like blacks.
KLEIN: Well, your personal feeling or you know that he doesn’t like blacks? … That’s a very strong statement. You are saying that he hates blacks. I have done a lot of research on him in general and I have never run across him ever making a racist statement or saying that there should be segregation in Alabama. So, are you sure he hates blacks?”
GARY: I am not sure. That is my feeling
KLEIN: And you are sure that he hates Jews? Because I also haven’t heard anything about that one.
GARY: Well, that is my personal feeling.
Gary was misleading when she charged that Moore “wanted to keep segregation here in the south.”
She was referring to a 2004 symbolic amendment seeking to remove racist language from the state constitution calling for “separate schools for white and colored children.” The racist mandate was not being enforced and had already been struck down by state and federal courts.
Moore and other conservatives took issue not with the removal of the racist, segregationist language, but with a provision added to the amendment which had passed the Democratic-controlled state legislature seeking to nix a 1956 amendment declaring Alabamans had no constitutional “right to education or training at public expense.” The amendment eventually failed to pass a statewide vote.
Even the far-left Talking Points Memo blog admitted that Moore’s opposition to the amendment was about the added public expense clause, with the politician fearing that the provision could lead to tax increases.
The blog related:
Moore and hardline conservatives pounced to argue the removal of that language would allow for a backdoor tax increase by judges who would see it as granting a constitutional right to an education, warning it would hurt taxpayers and threaten private schools and homeschoolers.
It cited Moore as telling the Birmingham Times in 2004 that the amendment would “open the door to an enormous tax increase.”
Meanwhile, in her interview with Breitbart News, Gary repeated her unsubstantiated claims about protecting cheerleaders from Moore. She claimed that her police department “had gotten a complaint that Roy Moore had been standing around watching the cheerleaders.”
“We worked the ball games,” she continued. “We worked all over the stadium. We were told to pay special attention to the cheerleaders’ stage. We had plenty to do at the ball game but that was one of the assignments also.”
Asked whether she was aware of another former or current police officer who would be able to publicly verify those claims, Gary responded, “No. I don’t know anybody that would want to go get on the news and tell it. I don’t. I sure don’t. I wish I did.”
Gary was challenged on why she waited all these years to go public.
Here is a transcript of that section of the interview:
KLEIN: If you knew about these rumors, why wait until now? If it is true, then couldn’t you have protected other women before now?
GARY: No. I couldn’t have protected anybody. I came out after the nine women came out. I remembered the incident when it happened back in the late 70s and early 80s. I had no reason to come out.
KLEIN: He was a Supreme Court Justice (in Alabama). He was a top politician in Alabama. So why now? Why not then?
GARY: I had no reason to come out. When the Corfman girl came out with her story that’s when I came out with my statement. After she came out with hers.
KLEIN: What I am saying is if you believe…
GARY (interrupts): Listen man, I know what Breitbart News is. So, when you quote me you better quote me right.
KLEIN: Oh, we are quoting every word. Don’t worry. I am not going to misquote you.
GARY: Ok. I came out after the women came out with the accusations of what Roy Moore had done to them. I had no reason to come out before that. Had they not come out, I never would have even thought about what Roy Moore did. Because he wasn’t somebody that I thought about.
Besides her allegations about ballgames, Gary was also quoted by the New York Times as claiming that “it was a known fact: Roy Moore liked young girls.”
“It was treated like a joke. That’s just the way it was,” Gary told the newspaper.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
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