A youth volleyball coach in Baltimore has been arrested on charges that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl, police say.
Marc Stephen Moore Jr. has been leveled with 13 separate charges, including possession of child pornography with intent to distribute, assault in the second degree, fourth-degree sex offenses, sex abuse of a minor, and providing alcohol to someone under the age of 21. Most of the charges date back to an original offense date of over a year ago, with the sex abuse of a minor and soliciting child pornography charges stemming from March 1st, 2017, and 10 of the other 11 charges dating back to May 14th, 2017. The alcohol furnishing charge is dated from July 11th, 2017.
Moore has been ordered held without bond.
Howard County Police say that the investigation began after the 16-year old girl reported that she had been sexually abused my Moore at the Maryland Junior Sports Center in Jessup, where he coached with the Maryland Juniors Volleyball Club. Moore was previously listed as the head coach of the team’s 17 Elite Yellow squad, the second-tier on the team’s later, and an assistant coach with the 15 Elite Black squads (the top tier of the ladder). He also formerly assisted with the 15 Elite Yellow and 14 Elite Black squads. A cached view of the site shows that he was listed as recently as May 17th. His name and bio page have been removed from the website as of Wednesday morning.
The United States Center for Safe Sport issued an interim suspension of Moore on April 12th, citing “Criminal disposition – involving a minor.” This prevents him from coaching any youth sports under the USCSS’ jurisdiction, including all sports under the umbrella of the USOC.
Sean Liu, the director of the Maryland Juniors Volleyball Club, told VolleyMob on Wednesday that the original police investigation took place on April 5th, and that Moore was suspended almost immediately thereafter.
Liu laid out the timeline in a statement:
“The original police investigation started on April 5th evening, when police officers had a meeting with Marc Moore at the Sports Center. After the meeting, my building manager also was informed about the nature of the investigation and Marc Moore was asked to leave the building right away. On that same evening, I was notified by my manager, who filled me in what was happening.
“I was at NEQ (an out-of-town tournament) with my other teams on April 6th and tried to set up a meeting with Marc Moore to discuss the investigation. I finally got a hold of him on April 7th and informed him of the club’s decision that he was suspended until further notice and he was no longer allowed to conduct any business at our facility. After I returned from NEQ, we reported the investigation to SafeSport and sent out the notice to all coaches to inform their teams’ players on April 13th that Marc was under investigation and he was suspended, and that no players are allowed to contact with him. So, Marc has not coach or set foot in the Sports Center since April 5th. 2018.”
As for the timing of Moore’s removal, Liu’s explanation was simple: “Our webmaster wasn’t available at the time to take Marc’s bio off our website.”
Officials have asked that anyone who may have been abused by Moore contact police at (410) 313-STOP or [email protected] or at (410) 222-4733.
Moore has several prior charges in Maryland court records, including a guilty finding in 2009 for felony theft. He received a 5 year prison sentence, but wound up serving just 30 days over the course of 14 weeks, serving all of the time from Monday through Wednesday.
Liu says that the USA Volleyball background and SafeSport checks did not show Moore’s prior convictions for theft, and that they were previously unaware.
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