“Working for George was, at the beginning, something that I had always dreamed of doing,” she said. “And by the end, and very quickly, actually, it became clear that there were ulterior motives.”

When contacted, Hopkins declined to meet with a reporter and deferred questions to his attorney, David Blumenthal.

KYLE MONROE / For The Inquirer Watch the Cadets' 2017 performance.

Provided a list of the accusations, Hopkins responded case by case, denying some allegations outright. For others, including those of Reynolds and the Riley sisters, he denied “any nonconsensual relations.” He also denied having “any relations whatsoever” with Lee Ann Riley while she was a minor. As for the most recent accuser, Hopkins, through his attorney, said he “never discusses his nor anyone else’s personal life with anyone at work.”

“Many of these allegations are criminal in nature,” Blumenthal said in an email. “Such allegations are inflammatory and defamatory and require no further comment. … To be sure, Mr. Hopkins vehemently denies any criminal actions.”

Hopkins, 61, was hired by the Cadets in 1979 and became director in 1982. He has coached the troupe to an impressive 10 world championships while earning a spot in drum corps history as an innovator and mentor to hundreds of teens and young adults.

The activity, which has a small but devoted following, can be likened to marching band, plus more theatrics and a grueling summer-long, coast-to-coast performance schedule. The members leave home to take part, spending virtually every moment of every day together.

The Cadets, which were founded in 1934 in Garfield, N.J., and moved to Allentown in 2004, hold a place of prestige as one of the oldest and most competitive corps. That has earned the team, and Hopkins, national prominence. The Cadets performed at the closing ceremony for the Atlanta Olympics, marched in President Barack Obama’s first inaugural parade, were the focus of a 2016 reality television show, and once performed on Late Night With David Letterman.

Hopkins is also CEO of Youth Education in the Arts, a nonprofit that runs the Cadets. It reaches thousands more teens and young adults through other programs, including a local dance troupe and about 150 high school band competitions it hosts annually in more than 30 states.

The board of directors for Youth Education in the Arts was made aware of several of the women’s stories in January. The women had agreed to share their accounts after being contacted by a group of alums of the organization who had concerns about Hopkins' leadership.

Their accounts were provided to the board, without the women's names, by Kevin Hahn, an attorney working on the women's behalf. Hahn told the board's attorney, Kimberly Spotts-Kimmel, that the women were willing to be interviewed if the nonprofit hired an independent investigator and Hopkins was suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, according to correspondence between the two.

The board hired Spotts-Kimmel's firm to investigate and did not suspend Hopkins. Hahn did not provide the women's names to the firm, as it represents the board.

"The YEA board took the matter seriously from the moment it received the anonymous allegations in January,” the board said in a statement. “Though the board hired a law firm to investigate and pursued every reasonable avenue of inquiry available, no accusers came forward and no evidence was presented to support the allegations against its executive director.”

Asked to elaborate on what the firm's investigation entailed, the board declined.

Drum Corps International (DCI), the nonprofit that oversees the activity, issued a statement Thursday after a version of this article was posted online saying it was “deeply concerned” by the accusations. The organization said it would assess what the Cadets were doing to investigate the allegations and whether any DCI policies had been violated. The organization said it could sever its relationship with The Cadets if its policies had been ignored.

Saying that it was previously unaware of the allegations against Hopkins, DCI also said it would "conduct its own internal review to determine whether any current members of our staff were aware of these allegations and failed to report them."

Hopkins’ accusers were once either Cadets or employees of the nonprofit.

Three were performers at the time of the alleged abuse: the Riley sisters and Debra Barcus, who was in the color guard alongside the twins in the 1980s. The Cadets rose to prominence in those years, winning an unprecedented three national titles in a row.