Vice principal held on child abuse charges
A former vice principal in the North Penn School District was ordered held for trial this morning on charges that he influenced a student to masturbate and then tell him about it for money.
Charles Daniels Hurst, 37, of the 200 block of Somerset Court, Lansdale, appeared at a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Justice David A. Keightly in Montgomeryville.
The charges alleged in the criminal complaint, which was filed Sept. 24, accuse Hurst of one count each of endangering the welfare of a child and corrupting the morals of a minor.
The complaint was made by a 14-year-old student who attended Pennbrook Middle School in North Wales while Hurst was vice principal there.
In amended court papers filed late last week, law enforcement officials said a second student had come forward with similar accusations.
The second student, a 13-year-old boy, told police Hurst gave him money and gifts in the fall of 2009 while the boy attended Pennbrook.
The amended complaint alleges Hurst asked the boy if he masturbated and how it felt. Police learned of the second alleged victim on Aug. 27 from a caseworker at Northwestern Human Services. NHS serves adults and children with mental health problems, addictive diseases, autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Hurst said nothing at all during the one-minute preliminary hearing. Keightly said the two sides agreed that Hurst acknowledged the facts in the complaint for the purposes of today's hearing only.
"It has the benefit of the children not having to testify,' Keightly said. The alleged victims did not appear to have attended the hearing.
About 15 people, including students, appeared in the courtroom to support Hurst. They met with him in small groups in a tiny conference room.
Several representatives of the Montgomery County chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse also appeared in the courtroom on behalf of the alleged victims.
Hurst resigned in the summer from the North Penn job to take a similar post in Lower Moreland. He was immediately fired after charges were filed in September.
Hurst's attorney, Gregory L. Nester, of Norristown, said he would have no comment on today's hearing. In general, he said, any defense in such a case would depend on why the first boy made the allegation and "what else was going on."