The co-owner of a clothing-optional campground in Towamensing Township will spend at least three months in Carbon County Prison for the indecent assault of a minor more than a decade ago.

Patrick Gremling, 56, of Jim Thorpe, was sentenced Friday to 3-23 months in county prison after pleading guilty to the second-degree misdemeanor of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years old. The sentence will commence after Gremling finishes a six-month jail stint in Ocean County, New Jersey for the assault of the same victim.

The case first emerged in January 2022 when the victim, then 21, reported to state police at Lehighton that Gremling, a relative, had sexually assaulted him when he was 11 years old. The alleged incident took place in November 2011 at the Woods Campground, where Gremling is the co-owner.

Gremling’s attorney, John Waldron, emphasized his client’s lack of a prior criminal record and his positive contributions to the community before Friday’s sentencing in front of Carbon County Common Pleas Judge Joseph Matika.

“He owns and operates Douglas House in Jim Thorpe for 15 years, and the Woods Camping Resort for 21 years,” Waldron said. “He’s a website designer, programming applicator, and a content creator.”

Waldron also read character letters that depicted Gremling as an honorable individual who supports local businesses and is deeply involved in the community. “He supports local businesses,” Waldron added. “He has offered people places to live, he took over someone’s workload whenever needed. He has suffered enormously in the press. He was picked up in Florida while traveling and spent over three weeks in extradition proceedings. He was assaulted in a Florida prison.”

The victim in the case detailed a long-lasting trauma, spoke of the exhausting legal process, and outlined the emotional toll it all had taken on him and his family.

“(Gremling) went so far as to ask my father to lie to his husband to get me alone,” the victim said. “And when my dad refused, he still found a way to get me alone that night and manipulate my body. His actions shattered my sense of safety and altered nearly every experience of my life since it happened. The trauma of childhood sexual assault is not something that fades with time. It lingers and casts long shadows over every aspect of my existence.”

Matika acknowledged the positive character references but emphasized the gravity of Gremling’s crime and its profound impact on the victim.

“These acts that you have committed on your own flesh and blood are heinous and horrific acts, and they do need to be punished accordingly,” Matika told Gremling. “One of the things that I saw in your statements in the presentence investigation was how all this negative notoriety has impacted you and what you do for the LGBTQ community, what you do for the local businesses, for tourists, and things of that nature. But Mr. Gremling, I need to remind you that this was all your doing. You could have prevented this.”

Upon release, Gremling is ordered to pay a monthly supervision fee, render 100 hours of community service, obtain mental health, drug and alcohol, and sexual offender evaluations, and follow any recommendations.

He is prohibited from contacting the victim and the victim’s family or having unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.

“A lesser sentence would depreciate the severity of this conduct,” Matika said. “This sends a message to the community that this type of conduct will not be tolerated by this court.”