Ex-Coast official talked group sex & young men, prosecutor says. He avoids trial with plea

A former Coast councilman talked on a dating app about his sexual fantasies and how he preferred young heterosexual men for group sex the same day he was accused of inappropriately touching a teen in Hancock County, according to prosecutors.

Alan Joseph Moran discussed those fantasies and more with 16 different men on Grindr, an Internet dating app that caters to gay men and others in the LGBTQ community.

Moran had the conversations on Valentine’s Day 2022, the same day Hancock County sheriff’s deputies arrested him for inappropriately touching a teen, then 17, for sexual purposes and more.

That and other information, including testimony from two other young men who said Moran made sexual advances on them as teens, came out in pretrial testimony on Jan. 31.

Moran was set for trial his week in Hancock County on felony charges of touching a child for lustful purposes and child exploitation along with misdemeanor offenses of contributing to the neglect of a child and dissemination of sexual materials to a minor under the age of 18.

A jury had been selected, but just before opening arguments Wednesday, Moran met with his attorney and some of his family, including his father, former state Sen. Philip Moran, and decided to plead guilty to one felony offense and one misdemeanor charge in a deal with prosecutors.

As part of his plea, Moran admitted calling a teen, 17, over Snapchat and asking him to come to do work at his father’s pest control company. Moran made sexual advances on the teen after he met him and asked the boy to play with a sex toy for money.

The same day, Moran said he bought the teen beer to drink.

Moran decided to enter guilty pleas after he negotiated a deal with the state Wednesday that included a recommendation for a 15-year suspended sentence, with five years to serve under post-release supervision and no time in prison for child exploitation along with orders to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

A 30-day jail stay was recommended for the misdemeanor charge of contributing to the neglect of a minor for buying the teen, then 17, beer to drink.

In exchange for the plea, Assistant District Attorney George Huffman said prosecutors are dismissing felony charges of touching a child for lustful purposes and dissemination of sexual materials to a minor.

Judge Christopher Schmidt delayed sentencing Wednesday but warned Moran that he would make the final judgment on sentencing that could be up to a maximum of 40 years in prison for the felony offense and up to a year in the county jail for the misdemeanor charge.

Moran was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom afterward. His sentencing is set for Feb. 16.

Assistant District Attorney George Huffman and Mara Joffe prosecuted the case.

The prosecutors laid out their evidence against Moran in a pre-trial hearing at the end of January.

The arrest

Hancock County sheriff’s deputies first arrested Moran for the crimes against the teen, then 17, at Dolly’s Quick Stop.

The teen had met up with Moran, then 35, after he allegedly sent him a message over the app Snapchat, asking if he wanted to come in that Valentine’s Day in 2022 to make some money doing some work for him at a mosquito company.

The teen said he met Moran at Philip’s Pest Control, the then-name of the company owned by Moran’s father, but one that Alan Moran also performed work for.

An investigator later testified that he saw the message sent to the teen.

After the two met up, the teen told authorities Moran took him to a pasture to look at some cattle, then they drove around doing work in the pest control truck before Moran later stopped at his home in Diamondhead and pulled out a sex toy.

According to prosecutors, Moran offered the teen cash and cellphone to play with the sex toy, but the teen declined.

Moran got the teen to meet up that Valentine’s Day to make money by teaching the boy how to do the work for the mosquito company.

During the drive, the victim reported that Moran rubbed his leg and genitals.

The victim resisted Moran’s actions, authorities said, resulting in Moran reportedly saying, “’What, are you mad at me? You don’t want me to touch you there?’”

Sheriff’s investigators said the teen sent his parents a text message asking for help and telling them to meet them when they pulled up at Dolly’s Quick Stop.

When the teen and Moran drove up, the teen took the keys out of the truck so Moran couldn’t leave before Hancock sheriff’s deputies arrived.

The teen’s mother said in earlier testimony that she, the teen’s father, and two others met them at the store and attempted to detain Moran until Hancock County deputies arrived.

When investigators arrested Moran, he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

Other victims?

At the pretrial hearing, the two other young men testified about Moran allegedly making sexual advances on them in their teens.

One of the young men said he reported to Waveland police when Moran allegedly touched him inappropriately while he was working for him, but nothing ever came of it.

Rafferty suggested that the young man made up the allegations because he was later fired.

The other young man said Moran made the unwanted sexual advance on him after Moran showed up at the home he was living in at the time in Pearlington.

He said Moran got the home address after he applied for a job with Moran and his father to work at either of their companies.

The young man said he didn’t get the job, but Moran showed up at his home two weeks later.

Moran showed up with some “work stuff” and then started making suggestive sexual comments, though he said it took him a minute to see what Moran was wanting.

Moran asked him to take a ride, the young man said, and pulled out a $100 from his pants pocket and said something like, “‘Wouldn’t it be nice to make some money while someone is giving you oral sex.’’

One of the young man’s relatives drove up about that time, he said, and Moran jumped in his vehicle and left.

The young man said he never heard from Moran again after that day.

Prior to entering the guilty pleas, Moran’s attorney questioned the validity of the claims, the character of the victim and accused him and his family of trying to extort Moran for money because the family filed a lawsuit against Moran, in the aftermath of his arrests.

The civil litigation is pending.

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