Alleged Victims Sue Avant Ministries, Church of the Nazarene Entities for Enabling Sexual Abuser
Lawsuits allege Bradley Earl Reger abused hundreds of children over decades.
Zack Winfrey and Derrick Fox say they were abused by former camp counselor and youth leader Bradley Earl Reger while campers at Echo Ranch in Juneau, Alaska.
A photo of Bradley Earl Reger from his detention memo. (U.S. Attorney’s Office photo)
Winfrey, whose family attended Susanville Church of the Nazarene where Reger was a youth leader, told KTOO that Reger first abused him when he was 10 years old under the guise of medical care.
As the youth leader, Reger would accompany dozens of minors on two-week long trips to Echo Ranch in Alaska.
Fox went on these trips to Echo Ranch with Reger as well. He said he was first abused in 2003, and the abuse happened multiple times per trip. Reger’s excuse to be alone with children always centered on some illness or injury.
Troy Wilson told KTOO he was one of Reger’s victims after meeting him as a child at Echo Ranch. Wilson’s parents worked at Echo Ranch and trusted Reger. When Reger invited 12-year-old Wilson and two other boys on a trip to California to enjoy amusement parks, Wilson’s parents agreed. That was the first time Reger abused him, Wilson said. The abuse continued under the guise of medical attention.
Wilson told KTOO that none of the abuse actually occurred at Echo Ranch, but that Reger used Echo Ranch as a way to befriend families and gain access to children.
“That’s what he does,” Wilson said. “It’s like Echo Ranch was a mechanism that introduced him to our family.”
In August 2023, Reger was indicted on federal sex abuse charges. On September 19, 2024, the Department of Justice announced that a superseding indictment was returned charging Reger with seven additional violations of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and coercion and enticement.
According to the Justice Department’s press release, Reger, a licensed nurse practitioner in California from 2003 to 2023, “sexually abused more than a dozen victims under the guise of conducting purported medical examinations at his nursing clinic in Susanville, and in hotel rooms and camp sites all over the world.”
If convicted, Reger faces a life sentence and a $250,000 fine per count.
Two lawsuits has been filed alleging civil sex trafficking, conspiracy, and assault based on the alleged sexual abuse of hundreds of minors by Bradley Earl Reger from 1998 to 2023.
Reger allegedly carried out his abuse not only while at camp, but also on mission trips, and when engaged in medical care.
The lawsuit filed in November 2023 over Reger’s sexual abuse of minors names Avant Ministries — the owner of Echo Ranch in Alaska — along with other Nazarene entities as defendants.
The lawsuit alleges that Reger used his positions at Echo Ranch to recruit children to attend events at the camp then abuse them.
In an August 2023 statement responding to the allegations against Reger, Avant Ministries said, “We are grieved by any report of sexual abuse of children, as the welfare and safety of children are paramount to the principles, policies and practices of Avant Ministries.”
Reger was a volunteer at the camp sporadically starting in the 1970s, but in light of the allegations has been barred from any affiliation with Avant Ministries, the statement said.
In response to an inquiry by MinistryWatch, attorney Mark Berry, who is representing Avant Ministries, wrote, “Avant Ministries is one of 20 defendants in the case and will be vigorously defending the plaintiffs’ claims. Given the status of the lawsuit and the privacy rights of the alleged victims, it would be inappropriate for Avant Ministries to provide further comment.”
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He did not provide a copy of Avant’s filed answer to the lawsuit.
The August 2024 lawsuit claims that several Church of the Nazarene entities — Church of the Nazarene Foundation, Susanville Church of the Nazarene, and Sacramento District Advisory Board, Church of the Nazarene — granted Reger access to young victims while he served as a volunteer, coach, teacher, youth group leader, and counselor.
According to the court documents, the defendants had knowledge of Reger’s dangerous propensities because of numerous reports to police and other authorities and investigations about his behavior with children starting in the 1980s.
“Despite the overwhelming evidence that Reger should not have been permitted around minors, the defendants continued to allow his free access to minors through his affiliations with them, resulting in the sexual abuse of hundreds of minors,” the lawsuit asserts.
It added that the defendants “held Reger out to the public” as a person of “high ethical and moral repute.”
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