Hopkins pleads no contest to indecent assault

Judge calls former Allentown Cadets band leader ‘disgusting’

George Hopkins, the former director of the Allentown Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps whowas accused of sexual misconduct by nearly a dozen women, pleaded no contest to indecent assault and was sentenced to two years probation in Lehigh County Court on Thursday.

Lehigh County Judge James T. Anthony also fined Hopkins $5,000, the most allowed by law, and called him “flatly disgusting.”

“I’m angry. Not just for [the victim] but for all the women who are taken advantage of by predators like you,” Anthony said.

The charge to which Hopkins pleaded no contest stemmed from a woman who said she was sexually assaulted in 2010. The 36-year-old woman addressed Anthony and spoke about years of fear, shame and depression as a result of the crime, which she did not immediately report.

She said Hopkins’ words on social media after the allegations became public in 2018 were a constant source of anxiety. Now, she told Hopkins, who stood a few feet from her in the courtroom, she feels stronger than ever.

“I’m still standing and using my voice to say what you did was wrong,” she said. “Consent matters.”

Hopkins, 63, was accused of sexual assault and harassment by numerous women in a 2018 Philadelphia Inquirer article, and was criminally charged in connection with two alleged

incidents later that year.

The women who accused Hopkins of harassment ranged in age from 16 to 37 at the time of the alleged incidents, which dated to 1980.

In the criminal case, prosecutors alleged Hopkins, of Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, sexually assaulted a former employee at his Allentown apartment, after they met at a bar to discuss drum corps rules. The woman told police that when she stood up to leave the bar, she felt “like she was moving in Jello.”

She said she told Hopkins “no” but was unable to fight off his sexual advances. She told police that she passed out in his apartment and, when she woke up, Hopkins was gone.

Hopkins was also accused of sexually assaulting another woman in Allentown in 2008.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors withdrew two charges of felony sexual assault and added the indecent assault count, a misdemeanor, and Hopkins pleaded no contest to that charge. Since the crime occurred in 2010, before a recent amendment to Megan’s Law, Hopkins is not subject to sexual offender registration.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Matthew Falk said the woman in the 2008 allegation “decided that not pursuing these charges are in her best interest, and we support her in that.”

Falk said the women were in agreement with the plea deal.

“They wanted to shed a light on his behavior and for him to have a criminal record,” he said.

Hopkins did not testify Thursday. In a no contest plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but concedes that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to secure a conviction. It carries the same weight at sentencing as a guilty plea.

If his probation officer recommends it, Hopkins will have to undergo sex offender therapy. Anthony warned Hopkins that if he violated any conditions of probation he could be sent to a state prison.

“I want the victims to know that what you did was horrible beyond description,” the judge said.

Hopkins also served as CEO of the Cadets’ parent organization, Youth Education in the Arts. In July, he sued the organization for more than $580,000 in severance pay. In the suit, Hopkins denied he was fired by YEA, claiming he left the organization through a “mutually agreeable cessation of employment.”

Allentown Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps separated from YEA and became the nonprofit Cadets Arts and Entertainment Inc. in May, stating they lost $1.5 million in sponsorships, donations and ticket sales after the allegations against Hopkins were made public.

In an online post last year, Hopkins called the allegations an “orchestrated smear” by those who disagreed with his management.

After the hearing, Hopkins’ lawyer, Thomas Bergstrom, called the probationary sentence “a fair result” and said there were many inconsistencies in the accusers’ stories.

“All that was claimed to have happened didn’t happen. It wasn’t rape and it wasn’t sexual assault,” Bergstrom said.