On Monday, a Platte County prosecutor asked a judge to sentence a Wheatland middle school and high school teacher who sexually abused two female students to between 40 and 50 years in prison.
Instead, District Court Judge Edward Buchanan sentenced Evan Whitt Bradley, 35, to between 49 and 57 years in prison, plus the judge ordered $6,026.92 in restitution and $20,000 in fines as well as lesser court costs and fees.
The girls were about 14 and 17 during the separate instances of abuse, court statements and documents indicate.
They both said they’d known Bradley for much of their childhoods: one since the age of 7 and one since the fifth grade.
Court documents say the abuse started with the older girl in 2023. The abuse against the younger girl started in 2024 and continued into 2025, charging documents say. Bradley left his teaching job in the spring of 2024, the district told Cowboy State Daily prior.
The plea agreement by which Bradley pleaded guilty to three sex crimes against one girl and four against another said that Platte County Deputy Attorney Marel Bunker Roth would recommend the 40-to 50-year sentence.
It didn’t say District Court Judge Edward Buchanan must adhere to it.
“I’m not going to abide by the plea agreement,” said the judge. “I’m going to increase the sentence. And, Mr. Bradley, if you’d stand, I will sentence you.”
Earlier in the more-than-two-hour sentencing hearing Buchanan had heard statements by both victims, their family members, and a Wheatland High School teacher.
All the victim impact statements shared a common strain of enduring betrayal and heartbreak and fostering the resolve to stave off shame.
The sentence breaks down to a 40- to 45-year stretch for one victim and a 49-to 57-year stretch for the other, but the two sentences are to run “concurrently” or simultaneously, reducing them to between 49 and 57 years in total. He’s amassed 384 days’ credit for time already spent in jail during his prosecution.
“Your attorneys make a good argument that, you know, there’s no criminal history,” said Buchanan to Bradley.
Public defender Eric Palen represented Bradley on one of the two cases, and private defense attorney Clay Simpson on the other. They both emphasized the productive and upstanding features of his life.
Bradley was a high school teacher, a marching band coach, and a member of the Army National Guard.
His counsel pointed to his successful growth of Wheatland’s band program, his mentorship of people in the military, and what they both cited as his honorable discharge from the military.
These things amplify rather than mute the betrayal Bradley perpetrated on the victims and the community, Buchanan countered while addressing the defendant.
“Up until this point seemingly you led a law-abiding life, you held positions that in the court’s mind hold you to a higher standard,” said Buchanan. “And so you betrayed the trust we had in you as a teacher to take care of the children.”
The judge said Bradley’s betrayal of his victims has tinged members of the military, teachers, and men in general.
“And that’s another disservice you’ve done to the male gender,” he said.
He related from the victims’ statements about their struggle to trust authority and others.
“Now kids at school, the other students even (may think) ‘Can we trust our teachers?’”
The victims’ and, potentially, the community’s new distrust toward the military damages the nation’s structure, said Buchanan.
“If we in a free society, in a constitutional republic and a democracy cannot trust the very people that our lives are entrusted, to that our children and our students are entrusted to, we’ve got nothing left, said the judge. “You don’t have a country anymore.”
Both victims spoke and identified themselves in the public, well-attended courtroom.
“There are some things that water won’t wash away,” said the younger girl. “And now we’re both still dirty from what you did.”
The girl said Bradley’s name still makes her flinch; he causes her nightmares, and she wishes she could “say ‘I hate you in every single language, in every way possible.’”
Her father and mother each spoke, each wept at the podium as well.
The older victim, now 19 years old, said Bradley groomed and manipulated her. She described how others’ behavior around her seemed different when news of his arrest broke. And she voiced surprise that she was able to address him and his behavior from the podium on Monday.
‘People Get Killed’
Palen and Simpson had both requested a sentence of 10 years.
“We know the reality,” said Palen. “People get killed and the perpetrators get less than what my client is facing.”
Palen noted that many of the defendants Buchanan sees have not accomplished much in their lives, contrary to Bradley. Court documents say that in addition to his career successes he holds a master’s degree.
He urged the judge to give Bradley “the opportunity to have a light at the end of the tunnel and to look forward to having a life when he gets out besides just being old and cynic.”
Simpson had emphasized Bradley’s diligence toward improving himself while in jail, his life instances of mentoring others and his lack of known violence.
Bradley apologized in strong and remorseful terms.
“There’s no way to verbally express my regret,” he said, adding that he regrets the negative impact he had on the girls’ lives.
“It was never my intention to cause harm,” he said. “Things got way out of hand, and I should have been more cognizant… I was the adult and I alone am responsible.”
From The Classroom
Cynthia Amundson, a teacher at Wheatland High School, said the youngest victim had asked her to attend the hearing Monday.
As an educator, she’d had to “help pick up the shattered pieces of our school’s culture in the wake of his crimes,” said Amundson.
Bradley used his role as band teacher to build a façade of talent and mentorship and used the prestige of his music program to bypass people’s protective instincts, she said.
His crimes sent a shockwave through the student body, Amundson added.
“In the days following the discovery of his crimes, students struggled to distinguish right from wrong,” she said. The teachers were “in a state of personal and professional grief, working to reestablish a moral compass for our students, that Evan Bradley tried to erase.”
The Tally
The four charges to which Bradley pleaded guilty were:
Three counts of felony exploitation of children, which is punishable by between five and 12 years and prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
One count of felony sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, while the perpetrator holds a position of authority, which is punishable by up to 50 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
Three counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree, while the perpetrator holds a position of authority, punishable by up to 15 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
In this case, felony exploitation of children refers to inducing a child into making child pornography.
Besides the prison sentence, Bradley will be a convicted felon and a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
