A former Wheatland band teacher originally accused of committing sex acts on a girl younger than 16 last summer now faces another 78 felony-level charges on claims he committed near-daily sex acts with a different, 17-year-old-student during his last two semesters on the job.
Evan Whitt Bradley, 34, faces the potential for more than a millennium in prison if convicted.
He was charged in March with the first 19 counts in a case involving the girl younger than 16 years old, which is set for an Aug. 11 trial.
Filed by Platte County deputy attorney Marel Bunker Roth, the new 78 charges have risen to the felony-level Platte County District Court. They allege that before Bradley became sexually involved with the younger teen, he had a sexual relationship with the 17-year-old that spanned roughly half of the 2023 autumn semester and the entire 2024 spring semester, after which she turned 18.
In the newer case, Bradley is scheduled to give his plea July 17.
Bradley could face up to 1,164 years in prison on the second case alone, and more than 400 years on the March case.
It lists two counts of sexual exploitation stemming from his alleged receiving of child pornography (punishable by between five and 12 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines) and another 76 counts of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor over whom he held a position of authority (up to 15 years and $10,000 in fines).
Taught Her Since Sixth Grade
Small-town rumors and the notice that Bradley had been placed on administrative leave from a job nudged this investigation into action, says an evidentiary affidavit by Platte County Sheriff’s Investigator Troy Bartel, filed May 29.
The narrative in the affidavit is heavily redacted, with portions bordering on incomprehensible. Besides the witnesses’ and alleged victim’s names, Bradley’s name and various locations that are enumerated in the separately-listed criminal charges themselves are also blacked out.
Coupled with the criminal charges, the affidavit indicates that Bradley sparked a relationship in October 2023 with a 17-year-old girl to whom he’d taught band since her sixth-grade year.
She sent him sexual photos at his request and there were near-daily sex acts involving the pair starting that month, the document alleges.
The criminal charges list locations for these to include his home, Wheatland High School, Wheatland Middle School and the Platte County-based armory for the Wyoming National Guard.
A Wyoming National Guard staff sergeant, Bradley remains employed by the guard but is in a modified role, his supervisors testified May 28.
The guard has placed Bradley under a military protection order to protect unnamed people and stemming from allegations within the guard’s “band community” of sexual harassment and sexual assault, a supervisor testified.
The guard told Cowboy State Daily in April that it is cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation.
Bradley remained in jail as of Thursday, according to the Platte County Detention Center’s inmate list.
Spill
Bartel’s affidavit says at least one minor female and two minor males spoke to him starting in late January and early February about the car of a person whose name is redacted (presumably a girl) being parked at the school near another car, presumably Bradley’s, until late at night — sometimes 11 p.m.
A female said she’d heard the pair would be in the band room together until late at night.
The males said they’d see the parking arrangement a few times a week and noticed the cars one night after 11:30 p.m., and the band room light on, the affidavit says.
Bartel applied for and received a search warrant for Snapchat accounts, owners’ names redacted.
Snapchat handed over the information Feb. 15, says the document.
Bartel noted messages between two people (names redacted) indicating a romantic relationship, including confessions of love, he wrote.
In March, says the affidavit, Bartel applied for and received a search warrant for a redacted home and person (presumably Bradley’s) and deputies executed that warrant March 11 alongside Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents.
That led to deputies arresting Bradley on the earlier child pornography charges from his March case “involving another minor child.”
The Teacher
In a March 31 interview with a DCI special agent, the girl said Bradley was her band teacher from sixth grade through her senior year of high school, and their sexual relationship started in October 2023, wrote Bartel.
Other statements in the affidavit indicate the girl was 17 when the relationship started.
Locations of their various sex acts include the stage right closet in the auditorium of a redacted site, the girl’s locker room of a redacted site, a vehicle and his home.
Nope, Not Ours
The affidavit makes a stray mention of a redacted character becoming a “police officer.”
The nature of the reference is unclear.
Both the Platte County Sheriff’s Office and Wheatland Police Department on Wednesday disavowed any connection to their respective agencies, writing in Facebook posts that “Evan Bradley has never applied for, interviewed for, or been employed within the Platte County Sheriff’s Department or the Wheatland Police Department.”
Platte County Sheriff David Russell did not return a Thursday voicemail request for more information by publication time.
Close Calls
The affidavit lists a couple close calls, when people walked into the band room while the pair were in the uniform closet together.
On one occasion, a friend of “(redacted)” walked through the band room while the pair were having sex; on another occasion, the janitor entered the band room and “(redacted)” went out to talk him while the girl “stayed hidden” in the closet, the document says.
Bradley was hired in June 2014 as Wheatland Middle School and Wheatland High School band teacher, Platte County School District Superintendent John Weigel told Cowboy State Daily in a prior email. Bradley resigned in March 2024, Weigel added.
That would have been during his alleged affair with the 17-year-old and before his alleged affair with the girl younger than 16, court documents indicate.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
