Pocono resort owner arrested again in Miami, faces new child sex assault charges
Editor's note: The gender of the alleged victim has been withheld from this article to protect their identity. They are referred to using they/them pronouns.
New allegations of sexual assault have surfaced against the co-owner of a clothing-optional campground in the Poconos.
Patrick Gremling, 54, of Jim Thorpe, was arrested Monday in Miami for an out-of-state warrant alleging that he sexually assaulted a child in Ocean County, New Jersey, in 2012.
Detectives with the Little Egg Harbor Police Department in New Jersey filed the charges on Jan. 24, two weeks after Gremling was arrested by the Pennsylvania State Police for allegedly assaulting a middle schooler at The Woods Campground in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, in 2011.
The Pennsylvania and New Jersey charges stem from separate incidents involving the same child, who is now an adult. The alleged victim told Ocean County detectives the assault took place at a Fourth of July barbeque in Little Egg Harbor.
Gremling asked the child how it felt to be touched, the accuser said, to which they responded they did not like it. Detectives wrote that Gremling said "congratulations" once the assault was over.
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A member of the child's family shared photos of the July Fourth gathering with police. They said they'd "always had an on-again, off-again relationship" with Gremling and had learned about the alleged abuse in December, shortly before state troopers were informed.
Gremling was first arrested Jan. 9, after PSP investigators said they wiretapped a 30-minute phone call between the resort owner and his accuser. Police said Gremling made "several admissions" over the course of the call, prompting the first felony and misdemeanor charges against him.
He awaits an extradition hearing in Miami, scheduled for Friday at 9 a.m. His preliminary hearing for the Pennsylvania-based charges is scheduled for March 2 at the Carbon County Courthouse. He is represented by John J. Waldron, who previously represented convicted murderer Robert Durst.
The remaining co-owners of the Woods Campground, which opened in 2004 and is marketed as a "safe, secluded getaway" for adults, has not yet acknowledged the allegations publicly or responded to a Pocono Record reporter's requests for comment.
Hannah Phillips is the public safety reporter at Pocono Record. Reach her at hphillips@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Woods Campground owner arrested in FL for new charges of sex assault
