A 23-year-old Tamaqua man is facing indecent assault charges after police say he inappropriately touched a 6-year-old child in 2019.
Borough police charged Dale E. Rehrig on Monday in connection with the alleged sexual assault, which occurred when the defendant was 16.
In December 2025, police said they received a ChildLine report of the assault and subsequently spoke to the victim’s mother, who said she had also learned about the incident recently. She told police that the defendant had touched the child’s private parts, and made the child touch Rehrig.
Police also interviewed the victim, who said that he and Rehrig were in a room together during the alleged assault. He said the defendant touched him inappropriately, then forced the child to do the same to him.
Police contacted Rehrig in January, and he initially denied allegations of sexual assault. In a later interview, however, he did admit to touching the victim inappropriately and “chalked it up to curiosity,” police said. Rehrig said that it was a one-time occurrence.
Rehrig faces two misdemeanor counts of indecent assault of a person under 13, along with a misdemeanor of indecent exposure.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 14 before Magisterial District Judge Stephen J. Bayer in Tamaqua.