Louis "Skip" ReVille is accused of 22 counts including criminal sexual conduct with a child, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, lewd acts on a child and disseminating obscene material.
By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services
CHARLESTON, South Carolina -- A former South Carolina school principal and youth coach was indicted Tuesday on 22 counts of sexually molesting boys, including some at?The Citadel?military college summer camp, five years after the college investigated the man but took no action.
The indictment was the latest of a string of sex abuse accusations involving university or youth coaches across the country since November.
A grand jury indicted Louis "Skip" ReVille for molesting and showing obscene materials to 15 boys in Charleston County, South Carolina, Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson announced on Tuesday.
The 22 counts include criminal sexual conduct with a child, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, lewd acts on a child and disseminating obscene material.
NBC station WCBD-TV reported that the boys claimed they were molested since 2002 while they were between the ages of 11 and 16 years old.
'Intense investigation'
ReVille was arrested last October on child sex charges in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina where he was a school principal. He had also worked as a children's sports coach at several schools and community recreation centers, police said.
"As you can see with the number of victims that were involved, the number of activities that were involved, this has been an intense investigation," Wilson said at a news conference.
ReVille's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Charleston's local Post and Courier newspaper, Reville is a married father of three.
ReVille's case first drew national attention when The Citadel announced shortly after the Penn State University sex abuse scandal erupted in November, that it had erred in failing to tell police about the allegations against ReVille in 2007.
According to WCBD the trials are expected to start by the end of June this year.
Among other sex abuse cases, a grand jury in November indicted a former Penn State football coach for serial sexual abuse of boys. A former Syracuse University basketball coach was accused of sexually abusing ballboys, and the former president of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) was accused of abusing youth basketball players years ago.
Prosecutors: Sandusky's alleged victims?as young as 8
All of the coaches have declared their innocence.
In 2007, a former Citadel summer camper said that five years earlier, when he was 14, ReVille invited him and another camper to his room, showed them pornography on his computer, and they masturbated.
ReVille, a graduate of The Citadel, worked as a counselor at the school's camp for three summers between 2001 and 2003.
The Citadel released documents on its internal investigation and the college's president expressed regret that school officials had not reported the allegations to police.
"I am saddened and sickened that someone so close has betrayed our trust," Citadel President John W. Rosa told a news conference in November.
Military college 'sorry' about sex abuse inaction
Wilson said Tuesday that The Citadel had no legal obligation to report the suspected inappropriate behavior and that its officials would not be charged with failure to report it.
"The Citadel is encouraged by the progress that's been made in the investigation and it will continue to cooperate completely in any ongoing investigation," Dawes Cooke, attorney for the college, said on Tuesday.
In 2006, the school paid a $3.8 million judgment in a civil suit filed by five former campers who said they were sexually assaulted by Marine officer and camp counselor Michael Arpaio. Arpaio was court-martialed for the crimes by the U.S. Marine Corps and served time in Charleston's Navy Brig.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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