“Flatly disgusting” is how a Pennsylvania judge described the former director of The Cadets drum and bugle corps during his sentencing on charges of indecent assault last week, as another organization faces sexual assault claims.

Lehigh County Judge James T. Anthony handed down a sentence of two years of probation and $5,000 in fines – the most allowed by law – to George Hopkins, 63, in Allentown, Pa. on Thursday, Sept. 24. Hopkins was accused of sexual misconduct by about a dozen women, but was being prosecuted for alleged assault of just two and, ultimately, pleaded no contest to just one count of indecent assault under the terms of a plea bargain with the local district attorney’s office.

A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt. It simply means the defendant chooses not to contest the charges and concedes there is enough evidence to result in a conviction. Defendants sometimes opt for a no contest plea to avoid the stigma – and potential risk of civil litigation – that a guilty plea carries.

Judge Makes His Opinion Known

Judge Anthony didn’t seem to hold back his thoughts during the sentencing hearing.

“I’m angry,” Allentown’s Morning Call newspaper reported him saying to Hopkins in court, “not just for [the victim], but for all the women who are taken advantage of by predators like you.”

History of Claims Against The Cadets Leader

The charge Hopkins pleaded no contest to involved a woman who claims he assaulted her in 2010, when she was 26 and working with him and The Cadets, the Morning Call reported. The two met at a bar to discuss drum corps business, the woman told police, but when she got up to leave she said she felt “like she was moving in Jell-O.” The woman says she told Hopkins no, but was physically unable to fight him off and at some point she fell unconscious in his apartment, she claims. When she came to later, she says, Hopkins was gone.

The alleged victim did not come forward to report the incident immediately and says she lived with feelings of shame and depression for years as a result of the experience. When the case hit the news in 2018, Hopkins took to social media to deny the allegations and said he was being smeared, which became “a constant source of anxiety,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Now 36, the woman spoke at Hopkins’ sentencing.

“I’m still standing and using my voice to say what you did was wrong,” the Inquirer reported her saying. “Consent matters.”

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Lehigh County prosecutors traded two charges of felony grade sexual assault – Hopkins had originally been accused in the 2010 incident and of sexually assaulting another woman in 2008 – for a single count of indecent assault, which is a misdemeanor.

Published Reports Gave Way to Charges

The Philadelphia Inquirer published an investigative report in 2018 that contained accusations against Hopkins from nine women dating as far back as 1980. The women, all either former performers with The Cadet or organization employees, told the newspaper Hopkins harassed and assaulted them. Some of the claims involved single incidents, others spanned months.

After the story was published, additional women came forward, including the two involved in the criminal prosecution that followed in 2018.

According to the Inquirer’s reporting, the alleged victims were between 16 and 37 at the time they say they were subjected to Hopkins’ misconduct.

The Cadets

The Cadets is one of the oldest drum and bugle corps in the country, having been founded in 1934. Through its website, it boasts of being “one of the winningest drum corps in history” with ten gold medals from the Drums Corps International competitions and “hundreds of regional and circuit championships.”

Comprised of 154 performers ages 14 to 22 playing brass instruments, drums and dancing in a companion color guard, The Cadets travel across the country participating in Drums Corps International events and performances each summer.

The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps separated from its former parent organization, Youth Education in the Arts, in May after reportedly losing $1.5 million in sponsorships, donations and ticket sales after the Inquirer published the report about Hopkins.

The Cadets joins organizations like the Boys and Girls Club of America, the Boy Scouts and YMCA/YWCA in accusations of abuse.

Probation Guidelines

According to the Morning Call’s report about Hopkins’ sentencing, Hopkins will not have to register as a sex offender because the crime he is convicted of happened in 2010, which predates the requirement to do so. The terms of his probation, however, include the stipulation that if Hopkins’ probation officer recommends sex offender therapy, he will have to undergo it.

At the sentencing, Judge Anthony warned Hopkins that any probation violations could land him in state prison, the Morning Call reported.

“I want the victims to know that what you did was horrible beyond description,” the newspaper quoted the judge as saying.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.