LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
Publisher’s Note: This article references courtroom testimony and accounts of sexual exploitation, sexual acts and assault carried out against a minor. Reader discretion is advised.
Allen J. Moore, 49, of Paris stood before Judge David W. Lewis on Monday, June 24 with three felonies charged against him. After hearing testimony from a Paris Police Department (PPD) investigator, the severity of each accusation became apparent.
On Jan. 17, 2023, two charges were filed against Moore: grooming (a Class 4 felony, one to three-year sentence) and indecent solicitation of a child (a Class 2 felony, three to seven-year sentence). A third charge of criminal sexual assault, a Class X felony (six to 30-year sentence), was entered days later on Jan 23, 2023.
After a defense motion to continue the case to a later date was shot down, details regarding all three charges were discussed during Monday’s preliminary hearing. PPD investigator Blake Gough took the stand, explaining he received an email from a concerned mother on Feb. 2, 2023. That email included online messages between the sender’s underage daughter and a user named George Jefferson.
When asked about the nature of the relationship between George Jefferson and the underage party, Gough spared no details.
“The relationship looked like it was sexual in nature,” he explained.
The owner of the account asked the young girl to take a bubble bath with them, requested she come over to his residence and dance naked, and thanked the younger party for oral sex.
“Thank you for the BJ, it was nice of you,” a particular message read.
Gough continued, explaining later messages from the account seemed to indicate the relationship had ended.
“He claimed he was done, that he would never forget the relationship,” Gough explained.
Jefferson was later identified as Moore thanks to a separate set of messages between the account in question and Moore’s daughter, where she referred to the user behind the George Jefferson account as “Allen” and identified the user as her father.
After the account was traced to Moore, Gough interviewed the defendant’s ex-wife, who explained that Moore admitted to sleeping in the same bed as the underage girl after his ex-wife left the house. The confession reportedly “described sex.”
An interview with the underage party corroborated the confession – she admitted to sleeping with Moore. Moore’s son also reportedly found Moore and the underage party sleeping in the same bed together in his home.
Sometime later, PPD responded to a call to J’s Laundry, where the underage party was found with methamphetamine, amphetamine and benzos in her system. She told officers on-scene that she received the drugs at Moore’s home and explained he forced her to have non-consensual sex with him.
During questioning, assistant state’s attorney Lauren McQueen asked Gough to verify the victim’s age during the events. Gough confirmed she was under the age of 18.
“(The relationship) started when she was about 16,” he said.
Lewis found probable cause a crime had been committed and Moore was involved. The defense, represented by public defender Nathanael Harsy, pled not guilty and demanded a jury trial. Moore is not being held in custody at this time.
A pre-trial conference for the case is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 19.
The public is reminded that all people arrested, or otherwise charged, are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.