BLOOMINGTON — A Bloomington man is behind bars after he admitted to police that he would masturbate in front of children while working at Hopebridge Autism Therapy Center.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed on October 4th, 35-year-old Joshua Moore admitted the incidents happened more than five times while he was employed at the center.
Police say Moore worked with non-verbal autistic children while at Hopebridge.
Moore admitted to standing in the corner of a room when children were present, watching pornography on his phone while fondling himself.
Moore told police he believed the children and fellow coworkers did not see him perform the self-gratifying act
He told investigators he never exposed his genitals in front of the children or coworkers and they could not see him watching pornography.
One of Moore’s relatives alerted police to Moore’s behavior after he told them about what he had done.
Moore claimed his behavior was the result of his self-diagnoses of porn addiction.
According to court documents, Moore told police he was participating in therapy sessions to address his mental health problems — though he never told medical personnel about what he did at Hopebridge because he feared they would be required to report his behavior to the police.
Moore was arrested and faces a felony charge of performing sexual misconduct in the presence of a minor and a misdemeanor charge for public indecency.
Moore waived his right to an initial hearing in Monroe County Circuit Court 2 and posted a $2,500 cash bond. He is scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial release conditions hearing at 1 p.m. on Thursday, October 12. He is being represented by Bloomington Attorney Katharine C. Liell.
