New Cumberland man charged with failure to report child abuse

Daniel Larlham Jr., Lebanon Daily News
·1 min read

Pennsylvania State Police have charged 50-year-old Rhett Hintze of New Cumberland with failure to report, but knowing about child abuse allegations made against a Palmyra man who was arrested in 2022.

In September 2022, Pennsylvania State Police were contacted by the Prince WIlliam County Police Department in Virginia regarding a sexual assault investigation they were conducting against Shawn Gooden, of Palmyra, with information that a juvenile victim was sexually assaulted somewhere in Pennsylvania by Gooden.

Gooden was arrested by North Londonderry Township Police in September of 2022 and charged by Virginia police with two counts of indecent liberties, two counts of forcible sodomy and five counts of aggravated sexual battery for sexual assaults that occured around the Woodbridge, Va. area between January 1997 and December 2000.

Investigation into the Pennsylvania assault alleged that Gooden had sexually assaulted a 12-year-old at French Creek State Park in April of 2000. Gooden was charged in July of 2023 with numerous counts stemming from that Berks County sexual assault.

Police alleged in a new release that during the investigation it was was discovered that Gooden and the victim of the sexual assault had disclosed the abuse to their religious leader, Rhett Hintze.

At the time of the disclosure, Hintze would have been acting as a religious leader in his position as Harrisburg Stake President for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and therefore would have been a mandated reporter by state law. Hintze allegedly failed to report the abuse to authorities.

Hintze was charged with one count of failure to report or refer on Wednesday and is scheduled to be arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Wendy Grella on Feb. 2.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on X @djlarlham.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: New Cumberland, Pa. man accused of failure to report child abuse