A San Francisco man camped across the street from a school displaying signs offering "free fentanyl for new users," and a previous pedophile conviction has been arrested after attempting to dodge city efforts to move him on.
San Francisco police officers told Joseph Adam Moore to leave Ninth Avenue and Geary Boulevard by 12:15 p.m. Friday. Moore, 46, had already taken down his free fentanyl sign but refused to move. He has lived opposite the Stella Maris Academy K-8 Catholic school for the best part of two years.
“Go f*ck yourself,” Moore told police after 11 a.m. “You’re a corrupt piece of shit."
Officers on the scene said they have been responding to Moore’s encampment two to three times daily since Moore erected signs soliciting drugs outside his encampment.
If Moore refused to remove his belongings by 12:15 p.m., police would cite him as a nuisance under PC 370, a misdemeanor, and release him at the scene, according to Lt. Wayman Young.
Minutes before the Department of Public Works was set to swoop in and remove Moore's belongings, he moved them a few feet away and evaded city efforts to get him away from the school.
But police then arrested Moore in relation to a pending probation violation, Young said.
Richmond police station's Captain Chris Canning said Moore is on probation for violating a stay-away order. The order was issued last year after Moore created a nuisance by camping behind a San Francisco firehouse, Capt. Canning said.
Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the area, thanked Capt. Canning for his help removing Moore from the area.
"Captain Canning and his team organized an undercover operation to investigate the individual posting the signs," said Chan in a statement. "Officers engaged with the individual and encouraged the removal of the signs and the structure."
The area has since been power washed and cleaned of any obstructions, Chan said.
Moore previously told The Standard he was serious about giving free drugs away as his signs said, but said he was not a user himself.
After his arrest, Moore's belongings were bagged up and removed by DPW workers.
“Our goal was to get the signs down and to maintain the safety of the children and the neighborhood, and that seems to have been accomplished," Peter Marlow, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said. “We’re working with the police to see that any laws affecting that are carried out.”
Moore and police officers told The Standard Friday morning that Moore had been punched by a concerned parent of a student at the academy. No further details were released by police when contacted for comment.
Convicted Pedophile
California’s Megan’s Law website lists Moore as a San Francisco transient convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age in 1997 and released in 2002. San Francisco Superior Court documents show Moore has been arrested 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 in Santa Cruz behind a set of bathrooms on Seabright Beach.