A man accused of trying to lure a 9-year-old girl was ordered held in jail last week.
Thomas Moran, 63, was arrested Dec. 18, after the girl and her mother ran into the man at the Walgreens two days after he allegedly tried to get the girl to come to his vehicle.
The girl was leaving Brown's Park on Dec. 16, when the man rolled down his window and call to her, according to the report.
The mother screamed at the man in Spanish, and he drove away, she told police.
The incident was not reported until two days later when the girl again ran into the man.
At that time, the girl was alone in an aisle when she saw the man who said something like, "I have to get back to work," according to the report.
Moran, whose last name is listed as Morin in his most recent paperwork, is a registered Megan's Law offender who was arrested four times on allegations of touching young girls in public from 2000 to 2008, with two prison sentences in that time.
He was released from his last sentence Jan. 21, 2020.
There was no proof that Moran tried to lure the girl, and there is no allegation he was inappropriate at the Walgreens, his attorney told the court.
Yvonne Maher noted that Moran was already at the Walgreens when the girl and her mother showed up, and that surveillance video shows he went straight to the pharmacy to get his medication.
But the surveillance video also seems to show the man following the girl, Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Ruffenach said.
"The defendant appears to parallel the victim as the victim walks aisle to aisle," he said.
The girl went to at least three aisles before going down one, with Moran then going down the same one, Ruffenach said.
Moran is not charged with any crime against the girl at the Walgreens, but he was issued a summons for shoplifting.
Maher took issue when the prosecutor noted that Moran is a Megan's Law offender on oversight, saying it was not pertinent to the case.
Ruffenach countered that it was.
"There's no reason he should be calling a 9-year-old child to his car," he said.
"I never did," Moran said before his attorney cautioned him against speaking.
Moran's previous convictions include touching a 12-year-old girl's buttocks at an Acme in 2008, and similar touching to two juvenile girls at Best Buy in 2004.
"The defendant clearly has a proclivity toward young juvenile females," Ruffenach said. "This is behavior of the defendant maybe he can't even control."
The public safety assessment used under bail reform to decide whether someone is held recommended his release.
But Judge Jeffrey Waldman disagreed.
Moran now will remain in the Atlantic County Justice Facility as his case goes through the courts.
