A convicted child molester who set up a sign advertising “free fentanyl” across from a San Francisco school was arrested last week.
Joseph Adam Moore was taken into custody just after noon on Friday after police gave him an order to move and he failed to do so.
Moore was arrested on 9th Avenue, just across the street from Stella Maris Academy, a Catholic school that serves children as young as preschool.
He is on California’s sex offender registry for “lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14.” However, it appears he is not considered a “high-risk” offender, so he does not have the obligation to stay 2,000 feet away from any school.
“I was told that he is in compliance with all the components of what his sex registration are,” San Francisco Police Captain Chris Canning said.
Moore had been camping across from the school for more than two years and told ABC7 last week that he has been homeless in San Francisco for “basically 26 years.”
Recently, he put up a sign reading, “Free fentanyl for new users,” which caught the eye of law enforcement.
“Were you giving away fentanyl? Was that just a joke?” a reporter from station KGO asked Moore.
“No, it’s not a joke,” Moore responded, adding that people give him fentanyl in exchange for supplies.
“So they bring me trash that they’ve scavenged, things that they think are valuable, or they give me some of the drugs that they have, which I don’t do,” Moore told the outlet.
“You’re exposing grade school kids to this? This is not right. You know that?” the KGO reporter asked.
“No, no, it’s shallow,” Moore responded.
The reporter pointed out that, “the kids come out of the school and they see this.”
“Yeah, I only live by two rules: be kind to others and make it look easy for children,” Moore said.
At one point, Moore and a parent from the school had a physical altercation. Moore got a misdemeanor battery ticket for that interaction, and he filed an assault complaint against that father.
A neighbor also expressed concerns, saying his wife walks around the neighborhood with their baby by herself and he now feels the need for “extra vigilance.”
After Moore was arrested, police and city workers worked to clear out the encampment across from the school.
Moore was also on probation for violating a stay away order filed against him by the San Francisco Fire Department on behalf of a particular fire station.
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