Man sentenced to 115 years for fondling women while impersonating a police officer
When he approached the women, Christoph Moore lied and said he was a police detective working an investigation.
He flashed a badge and, in two cases, a gun.
But really, prosecutors said, the man was a registered sex offender with a history of violence. He had prior convictions for robbery and assault with intent to commit rape.
When two women followed his orders under his guise, authorities said, he fondled them. In a third case, he forced the woman to take off her clothes.
This week, the 41-year-old Anaheim man was sentenced to 115 years to life in prison for his crimes, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Moore was convicted of one count each of assault with intent to commit a sexual assault, criminal threats, grand theft, second-degree burglary and two counts of false imprisonment by violence, the district attorney’s office said.
He was also convicted of four misdemeanors, including three counts of unlawful use of a badge and one count of sexual battery.
The first case was reported in October 2015. A woman was working at a store downtown when Moore walked in and identified himself as a detective, flashing a police identification card and badge, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Lowrie Mendoza.
He told the woman he needed to see her business papers and instructed her to lock the doors. He then ordered her into the bathroom, where he told her to take off her clothes. She refused, after which he brandished a handgun at his hip. She then followed his order.
Soon after, the woman’s ex-husband arrived and knocked on the doors, prompting the man to flee.
The following month, on two occasions less than a week apart, Moore stopped women in the Hollywood area while pretending to be a police officer and touched them inappropriately.
A foreign exchange student was walking home when she gave a bag of chips to a homeless man. Shortly after, Moore approached her at her front door, flashed his badge and accused her of giving the man drugs.
He ordered her to put her hands against a wall before grabbing her breasts. She resisted, prompting him to pull out his handgun and point it at her. He threatened to shoot. The incident, Mendoza said, was captured by a surveillance camera.
A few days later, Moore approached a woman who had just parked at her home in Hollywood. He put a badge against her window and told her he was stopping her for missing registration tags.
He ordered her out of the car and told her to put her hands against a wall. He then groped her buttocks and thighs. During the interaction, he bumped into another car, Mendoza said, triggering the alarm. He fled.
Anonymous tipsters identified Moore after police released surveillance video of the second incident. He was arrested at his Anaheim home in December 2015, Mendoza said.
alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
Follow me on Twitter @AleneTchek
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UPDATES:
10:55 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information about the crimes.
This article was originally published on July 27 at 8:35 p.m.
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