Ex-Coast councilman Alan Moran indicted on felony charges related to teen’s sex assault
Former Diamondhead councilman Alan Moran surrendered to Hancock County authorities Friday following his indictment on two felony charges, including allegations of molestation, and two misdemeanor offenses in connection with an encounter with a minor last year.
Moran, who is the son of state Philip Moran, turned himself in just before 9 a.m. Friday at the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department. His attorney, Donald Rafferty, accompanied him to the jail.
A grand jury indicted Moran, 35, on one count each of touching of a child for lustful purposes and child exploitation. In addition, he is facing two misdemeanor charges for contributing to the neglect of a child and dissemination of sexual materials to a minor under the age of 18.
Moran faced the felony charge for dissemination of sexual material for allegedly showing a minor video of two people engaged in sexual conduct, according to the indictment.
Moran was first arrested the evening of Feb. 14, 2022, outside Dolly’s Quick Stop.
The teen had met up with Moran at Phillips’s Pest Control to do some work for Moran when the alleged crimes occurred.
The teen later sent his parents a text message asking for help after Moran allegedly touched the teen on his genitals, and he and Moran drove up in the truck 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 until 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.
After he surrendered Friday, his attorney declined to say much about the new charges other than he looks forward to defending Moran at trial.
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When sheriff’s deputies arrested Moran on Feb. 14, 2022, he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
An investigator later said that the victim showed him Snapchat text that Moran had allegedly sent the boy asking him to meet up and work for him.
The victim reported that Moran rubbed his leg and genitals through his clothes while the teen was driving the work truck.
The victim resisted Moran’s actions, resulting in Moran reportedly saying, “’What, are you mad at me? You don’t want me to touch you there?’”
The victim had reportedly met with Moran on two other occasions. Both times, the teen reported he and two friends had met with Moran in a room above the pest control office.
Moran is accused of providing the minors beer and allegedly offering them a sex toy.
At the time of his arrest, Moran managed to break free from the parents and friends trying to detain him and ran into a wooded area to ditch a phone.
Authorities later recovered that phone along with a second phone and obtained video surveillance footage from the store that showed Moran buying the beer earlier that day when he pulled up in the same work truck.
The attorney representing the teen’s family in a civil suit against Moran and Phillip’s Pest Control says the teen is not the first alleged victim of Moran.
The family “appreciates the careful and thorough job that the Hancock County Sheriff’s investigators and the District Attorney’s office have done with this criminal case,” says attorney David Baria. “The main concern of the victim’s family has been and continues to be that Alan Moran will not be allowed to perpetrate crimes against children any longer.”
Sun Herald visual journalist Hannah Ruhoff contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 9:33 AM.
