Camp director arrested for hiding juvenile sex assault

When two boys allegedly molested another boy at a Montgomery County summer camp a month ago, the director booted the alleged offenders out, putting them on an airplane to their home states.

But he never alerted police.

And for that, Ryan Wexelblatt now is criminally charged with failing to report suspected child abuse and related offenses.

The alleged abuse occurred during the overnight hours of July 4 into July 5 at Camp Sequoia, an overnight camp in Pennsburg for boys with attention deficit disorder that Wexelblatt founded in 2011, according to authorities. Upper Perkiomen police began investigating after a tipster reported the alleged incident to an online Crime Stoppers tip line, as well as Wexelblatt's alleged failure to alert police, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman.

Investigators found that the alleged victim told camp counselors he had been sexually assaulted, Ferman said. The counselors alerted the most senior counselor, who allegedly reported it to Wexelblatt and identified the alleged attackers. Wexelblatt interviewed all three campers involved and directed the senior counselor to drive the offenders to the Philadelphia International Airport that same morning to board flights home - but did not report the incident to authorities.

State law requires child care workers to report such assaults to law enforcement or child protective services. Wexelblatt faces a Sept. 12 preliminary hearing.