A homeless man and convicted sex offender who antagonized San Francisco’s quiet Inner Richmond neighborhood last year with handmade signs reading, “Free fentanyl 4 new users,” has returned to the area and said he plans to bring back the infamous signs in a new format.
Joseph Adam Moore last posted signs in October near the Stella Maris Academy, an elementary school on Ninth Avenue near Geary Boulevard. Moore said the signs are a form of protest at how the city has handled its drug and homelessness crises.
Moore said he plans to project the words onto City Hall using a digital projector in early May—or on May 4, his birthday.
“The same thing as last time, ‘Free fentanyl for new users,’” Moore said, sitting on a bench at the Argonne Playground on 18th Avenue. “It doesn’t just have to be trash signs. It could be higher-tech.”
Moore has been inconsistent in describing his plan to project a sign on City Hall.
Moore originally said he would project the sign using a cheap projector available online, but when asked over text message to elaborate on the plan, he said he could use a broken mirror, a stencil, an electric toothbrush and a laser pointer to create a projection visible from “a mile away” at night.
Moore was convicted in December of creating a public nuisance after piling his belongings on Ninth Avenue in October. Moore said he was sentenced on Jan. 11 and released that day for time served with one year of probation. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has not responded to requests for comment.
Moore said the city has often thrown away his belongings throughout his more than 20 years living on San Francisco’s streets.
“The way they treat [homeless people] is by selectively enforcing the law against people who go against the norm of living in a house with a job,” he said.
The Department of Public Works has confiscated his property “two or three times” since his release, Moore said, resulting in the loss of “hundreds of dollars” of food and hygiene supplies.
When asked about this, the department provided it's "bag and tag" policy, which says homeless peoples' unattended property is stored at DPW's operations yard at 2323 Cesar Chavez St., and that owners can retrieve it from the lot. Abandoned property and perishable food is discarded during sweeps.
The city has fallen under scrutiny amid allegations made in a federal lawsuit in October that it failed to provide training to workers who do sweeps, including around how to properly serve notice when clearing encampments, what items should be discarded or stored, how to distinguish between abandoned and unattended property and procedures for homeless people to reclaim their belongings.
Moore also said police approach him daily, telling him to move from wherever he is camped, which he says is throughout the Richmond District. Police said officers cannot identify anyone they make contact with unless they are arrested within the last 90 days and SFPD has not arrested Moore since his release.
“It’s unfair for people to categorize me as someone to be worried about,” Moore said.
Convicted sex offender
California’s Megan’s Law website says Moore was convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age in 1997 and released from prison in 2002. San Francisco Superior Court documents show Moore has been arrested at least five times in the city since 2007 for allegedly failing to re-register his address as a sex offender every 30 days.
A Santa Cruz Sentinel article from 1997 reports Moore was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl in Santa Clara County before being released from custody and then having sex with a 15-year-old girl in Santa Cruz behind a set of bathrooms on Seabright Beach.
Roughly a dozen nannies with children were at the Argonne Playground, where Moore was sitting Thursday. Several said they were concerned about his presence near children.
A nanny, who works as a nanny for two local families and asked not to be named due to safety fears, was playing with a 2-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl at Argonne Playground on Thursday. The nanny said she spots Moore there around three times a week. After learning of Moore’s sex offender status, she said she will no longer take children there.
The nanny said Moore doesn’t go near the children and is always situated with his back to the playground. Sometimes he will also pitch a tent, either near the park’s eastern entrance or near the park benches on the other side of the playground, she said.
Allexa Baron, a San Francisco State University student looking after a 1-year-old boy, said she found Moore’s presence at the Argonne Playground “a little concerning.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for him to be here,” Baron said.
Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the neighborhood, said she is thankful for Richmond District police station Capt. Chris Canning, who has been “monitoring this situation and in close communication with me and my team.”
Archdiocese of San Francisco spokesperson Peter Marlow said Moore has not been seen around the Stella Maris Academy but is aware that he is in the area and is “monitoring children and families' safety.”
Moore said he doesn’t plan to leave the playground and faces away from the kids so he doesn’t get in trouble for appearing to watch them, given his criminal history.
Moore is not a deemed high-risk sex offender by the state and does not have restrictions placed against him for being near schools or other places where children are present, according to the Megan’s Law website.
“I don’t plan to leave,” Moore said. “I like it. It’s nice.”