SAN FRANCISCO—A homeless registered sex offender who camped across the street from the Stella Maris Academy, a PK–8 school in the Richmond District of San Francisco, with a “Free Fentanyl 4 New Users” sign was convicted by a jury of committing a public nuisance and has been released from custody, according to Dan Noyes of ABC7 News.
Joseph Adam Moore, the man in question, has been sentenced to one year of formal probation with an individualized treatment program.
He is required to obey all laws and stay 100 yards away from the school. He is also to stay away from a nearby fire station that he had a previous stay-away order from after he created a nuisance by camping behind it.
According to trial evidence, Mr. Moore piled belongings on Ninth Avenue, taking up much of the sidewalk and blocking e-bike access on Oct. 19 and 20, according to SF Standard.
Mr. Moore had been seen camping around the area for about four to five years prior, resident Derek Lee told SF Standard.
It wasn’t until Mr. Moore put up the signs “Free Fentanyl 4 New Users” and “Meth for Stolen Items” that he gained attention, prompting the police to visit him daily.
Mr. Moore is not considered a “high risk” offender, so he did not have to follow the rule to stay 2,000 feet away from any school, reported ABC7 News.
Dan Noyes of ABC7 News said: “One of the craziest headlines—SF Standard reporting that convicted child molester set up camp across from grade school offering ‘free fentanyl for new users.’ I had to check it out, and it’s true.”
The Richmond District police captain told ABC7 News that they tried an undercover sting on Mr. Moore, but he didn’t have any drugs at the time.
Mr. Moore also got into a physical altercation with an upset parent from the Stella Maris Academy who tried to remove his signs, and this led to a battery charge.
ABC7 News reported that Mr. Moore poured a gallon jug of apple juice over a parent before a parent hit him.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told KTVU News: “We’re dealing with an individual who obviously is a registered sex offender, who has now violated the law in multiple ways and is really causing an issue near a school with young children. And so we want to be very mindful of the surroundings of where his conduct occurred and make sure that we are keeping the community safe.”
Mr. Moore was booked on one misdemeanor charge of contempt of a court order, battery, and “obstructing free and comfortable use of liberty and property,” jail records show.
The prosecution asked the court to keep Mr. Moore in custody while his case moved forward.
Ms. Jenkins told ABC7 News, “We believe that he presented a public safety risk that necessitated him being in custody while this case is open.”
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Vedica Puri granted the DA’s request.
She said, “While this city is extraordinarily empathetic to its unhoused—we offer untold amounts of services—there is a limit. So when there’s a public nuisance issue, this court has to take it seriously.”
While Mr. Moore was in custody, San Francisco Judge Vedica Puri reduced his bail from $35,000 to $10,000, according to ABC7 News.
The California Megan’s Law website lists Mr. Moore as a transient in San Francisco with a conviction of lewd or lascivious acts with a child younger than 14 years of age in 1997 and released in 2002.
According to an October 1997 report from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Mr. Moore was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl in Santa Clara County earlier in the year. He had been out of custody for just more than a month when he got drunk with a 15-year-old girl, which led to an incident of statutory rape at a Santa Cruz beach. He had been charged with rape, but he agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of statutory rape and to spend six years behind bars, according to Assistant District Attorney Patty Bazar.
