District Attorney Jim Martin has approved criminal charges against the former director of the Allentown Cadets.

George Hopkins, October 28, 1956, age 62, of Mechanicsburg, has been charged with two counts of sexual assault, a felony of the second degree. The complaint was filed in the office of Magisterial District Judge Ronald Manescu. The defendant surrendered by prior arrangement with his attorney, Thomas Bergstrom, and is being arraigned later today through Central Booking.

In May 2018, two victims, identified here as J.B. and D.S., came forward to report that they were sexually assaulted by Hopkins. The victims and Hopkins were associated with Youth Education in the Arts, the organization which sponsors and governs the Allentown Cadets.

Lehigh County Detective Andrew Millen, of the District Attorney’s Office, and Detective Jacqueline Murray, of the Allentown Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, began an investigation and interviewed the victims.

J.B. reported that in the winter of 2008, she was asked by Hopkins to come to his residence in Allentown to do work related to YEA. J.B. was an employee of YEA at that time. Upon arrival at Hopkins’s home, she found Hopkins drinking a glass of red wine. He offered her a glass that he had already poured for her. The victim stated that she drank some of the wine and began to feel peculiar, as if she were “floating on the ceiling” and described feeling “out of it.”

At that time, she was sitting on the couch with Hopkins, who began kissing her and removing her clothing. J.B. told Hopkins that she did not want to engage in this, but she found she was physically unable to resist his advances.

Hopkins took the victim to his bedroom, where he undressed himself and sexually assaulted her. J.B. never consented to having sex with Hopkins, and in fact, she stated that she told him “no” multiple times.

During the interview of the second victim, D.S., she indicated that she had worked for YEA from 2006 to 2007. In 2010, she was employed by a rival drum and bugle corps. She set up a meeting with Hopkins to discuss issues affecting both her organization and the Cadets. The meeting took place at a bar in Allentown in the late summer or early fall of 2010.

D.S. said that while at the bar with Hopkins, she was drinking a beer but left to go to the bathroom. When she returned, she finished her beer and consumed a shot of liquor which Hopkins encouraged her to drink. For the remainder of the time she was at the bar, she drank water. When she tried to stand up later that evening, she described feeling like she was “moving in Jello.”

D.S. said that she then went to Hopkins’s apartment in Allentown. As she sat on the couch there, Hopkins grabbed her, pulled her on top of him and ripped her shirt. D.S. began crying and asked Hopkins to let her “go home.” Hopkins carried her into his bedroom, where the alleged sexual assault took place. Throughout the incident, D.S. said she told Hopkins “no” multiple times.