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Save This PagePat Hendricks was shopping at Virginia Center Commons when she spotted the man who was acquitted of killing her son.
But Samuel J.T. Moore III disappeared before she could reach him that day.
"He saw me, and he was gone," she said.
Hendricks wanted to offer forgiveness, even though Moore was acquitted in the stabbing death of her youngest son, Stephen, who died after a street fight involving two of his friends and Moore outside a Shockoe Bottom bar in 1998.
Hendricks and her husband, Ed, believe a different kind of justice awaits Moore, a 44-year-old Richmond blueblood who faces a wide-ranging investigation by local, state and federal authorities of his business, the Bottom's seminude Club Velvet, as well as two misdemeanor charges that he had sex with a minor at the club.
"That man is lost," said Ed Hendricks, who added that he would not hesitate to kneel in prayer with Moore.
For Moore, the latest legal charges represent another chapter in a saga of accusations that he and his lawyer say arise from jealous women, disgruntled strippers and their boyfriends, and people envious of his success in the adult-entertainment business.
Club Velvet is under investigation for possible prostitution, public nudity and drug distribution, according to a search warrant. State Alcoholic Beverage Control agents are involved in the investigation, as well as the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Some of Moore's old friends regard the club as a calculated affront to the genteel Richmond society that produced him.
His father was a prominent lawyer and Civil War historian with one house in Richmond's Fan District and another in Palm Beach, Fla. His mother, who died at 40, was born to a prominent family with ties to Southside Virginia and the tobacco business.
Moore is the product of a classic Virginia prep school education, beginning with St. Christopher's School in the West End and through his graduation from Hampden-Sydney College in Prince Edward County.
"He's old Richmond," said Michael Morchower, Moore's defense attorney. Morchower also represented Moore on four felony charges -- each alleging sexual violence -- and one misdemeanor in the past six years, all of which were dismissed.
Moore had declined interviews, allowing Morchower to speak for him, and hasn't returned several phone calls to Club Velvet. But he did agree to a nearly 14-minute radio interview last week, in which he said he has become a target because of his business and a personality that he described as "weird."
"I'm kind of a complicated person, I guess . . . kind of misunderstood," he said during the interview with the "Elliot in the Morning" show on WRXL (102.1 FM). "I'm no choir boy, but I'm not Charles Manson, either."
During the interview, Moore:
At the same time, Moore said, he's confident that the investigation of Club Velvet won't find improprieties. "Amazingly enough, it's a pretty clean operation. I'd be pretty surprised if they found anything."
Moore said he was surprised by the multijurisdictional search of the business Feb. 23 at 2:45 a.m.
The items seized include financial records and reams of documents, videotapes and computer equipment, four guns and a will. Moore said in the radio interview that he has a concealed-weapon permit for the two pistols, shotgun and rifle.
"Where this goes depends on what's in the records," Morchower said of the investigation.
Moore, who is due back in Richmond's Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court this month, said he's continuing to work at the club pending the outcome of his charges.
. . .
Morchower said Moore's most recent troubles stem from his plans to open a new nightclub -- possibly featuring scantily clad waitresses -- on the edge of the Fan in a building formerly operated as Julian's restaurant.
The club would be just across West Broad Street from the Children's Museum of Richmond and the Science Museum of Virginia.
Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring said last week that he expects Moore to blame the investigation on the furor over the Julian's building. Herring said the investigation is not related to the proposed club, though he added he personally opposes the idea.
The location is about seven blocks from the house where Moore grew up in the 2200 block of Park Avenue. His father, Samuel J.T. Moore Jr., made an unsuccessful bid for the House of Delegates in 1957 as a staunch supporter of Massive Resistance to school desegregation.
The elder Moore also was an avid historian who wrote two books, including "Moore's Civil War Guide to Richmond," and portrayed Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other notable Virginians in historic re-enactments of their speeches.
He died in 1989 of a heart attack in the airport at West Palm Beach, Fla. His wife, Mary Frances Edmunds Moore, died of cancer in 1978.
When his mother died, Sam III was a student at St. Christopher's. He went on to graduate from Episcopal High School, a boarding school in Alexandria where he played soccer, tennis and lacrosse. He graduated from Hampden-Sydney with a bachelor of arts degree in 1986.
But Moore has shown anything but genteel discretion about his business, which advertises with spotlights that beam above the Bottom and two gold Hummers that use loudspeakers to draw customers to the neon-lit strip club on South 15th Street.
"He's put a target on himself," said one old friend and classmate at St. Christopher's, who asked not to be identified.
Another former classmate, who also asked not to be identified, said Moore likes to thumb his nose at the establishment -- "anything related to authority."
His old friends say they've tried to steer him away from the adult-entertainment business and a lifestyle they regard as self-destructive, but have gotten nowhere.
"It's a little late for him to ask for help now," one said.
Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.
