Ex-Philly basketball star sentenced to prison again

A former Simon Gratz High School basketball star who went on to play as a professional in Spain, but later became gripped by a gambling addiction, has been sentenced to two to four years in prison for bilking 17 prospective renters out of more than $41,000.

Harry Moore Jr., 44, was also sentenced on Wednesday by Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Michael Erdos to one year of probation and ordered to pay $41,190 in restitution. Erdos recommended that Moore receive gambling treatment.

Moore's attorney, Jonathan McDonald, said Thursday that this was not a case of someone who acted out of malice, but rather of someone "overwhelmed by his addiction."

Moore pleaded guilty on Feb. 3 to 12 felony theft counts and five misdemeanor theft offenses for stealing money from 17 prospective renters last year, the District Attorney's Office said.

Prosecutors said Moore engaged in a scheme to defraud Philadelphia renters by listing his house on the 8000 block of North Fayette Street in East Mount Airy on various rental sites, including Zillow and Craigslist.

After meeting a potential renter and obtaining a rental deposit, he then concocted multiple excuses why a renter could not move in, such as repair work had to be done on his property or he had gotten into a car accident and had been in a coma, prosecutors said.

His victims included single mothers with young kids, the elderly, a disabled veteran and young adults, prosecutors said.

When victims demanded the return of their deposit money, prosecutors said, Moore stopped answering their calls and moved on to the next victim.

McDonald said Moore returned some money to at least three victims and at Wednesday's hearing, Moore apologized to all of the victims, some of whom were in court.

Nicole Taylor, 37, one of the victims, said Thursday that she and her fiance found Moore's house for rent in May on Trulia. The two-story brick rowhouse, with a front lawn and basement, was nicer and in a better neighborhood than where they were living in Germantown, she said.

Taylor, a social worker, said they gave Moore $2,100 for a security deposit plus their Social Security numbers and other personal information.

They were supposed to move in July 1 and Moore was to move out, but about a week beforehand, Moore told them that work needed to be done to the house.

A day or two later, Taylor said, she realized she was being scammed. She and her fiance went back to Moore's house and asked for their money back, she said, but Moore refused.

In the days afterward, Moore did give her back $1,100, Taylor said. But she said she is still owed $1,040 and lost more money after they had to quickly find another place to live.

At the time of his offenses last year, Moore was under supervision by Erdos for the exact same crime on four other cases, prosecutors said.

Moore, who was the Daily News' 1990 "City's Finest Athlete," played basketball at Simon Gratz and at St. Bonaventure University in western New York State. He sat out his first year at St. Bonaventure after failing to qualify on his SATs, but went on to star at the school.

In his senior year, 1993, he averaged 20 points and nearly 10 rebounds despite the death of his mother in a car accident on Lincoln Drive.

McDonald said Moore's father and uncle are pastors in Philadelphia.

Moore played professional basketball in Spain from 1995 to 2000, but had to stop playing after he injured a knee, McDonald said.

After Moore returned to the U.S., like other ex-athletes who are "driven away from their livelihood, left with emptiness in their life," he started gambling in Atlantic City and Philadelphia-area casinos and through sports bookies, McDonald said.

"In a few months, he blew all his money made in Spain," McDonald said.

McDonald said Moore's gambling addiction "was a product of a disease," and that Moore also then began having problems with alcohol abuse. He was "drinking to prevent himself from going out to gamble," McDonald said.

McDonald said he asked at the sentencing hearing for Moore to get a county jail term so he could receive treatment for his gambling addiction sooner rather than later.

Prosecutors asked for a state prison sentence, and the judge agreed, citing prosecutors' argument that the community needed to be protected, the D.A.'s Office said.

In May 2002, Moore was sentenced in Montgomery County to three to six years in state prison for three holdups at a Rosemont ATM after having pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery earlier that year.

Lower Merion police had arrested him in April 2001 after staking out the ATM at which two Villanova students had been robbed at gunpoint after withdrawing cash.

Police have said that after the third robbery, Moore fled to his car and was arrested with the victim's bank card and cash, and a plastic pistol.

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