A California man charged with five counts of criminal sexual activity against minors is suspected to have hundreds of victims worldwide, including many in Reno, according to people close to the case.
Bradley Earl Reger, 67, of Susanville, was indicted on July 20 by a federal grand jury, charged with illicit sexual activity abroad, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and coercion and enticement, with the alleged crimes occurring between 2006 and 2014, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California.
Reger, who had worked as a licensed nurse practitioner since at least 1986, “has been heavily involved in various Christian schools, summer camps, youth groups, and church missions. He has held positions as a teacher, camp counselor, church deacon, youth group leader, and owner of affiliated nonprofit organizations,” according to the press release. He also owned and operated several ambulance and flight ambulance businesses, including Mountain Lifeflight of Nevada, which he operated from Susanville.
Court documents allege Reger of sexually abusing more than a dozen patients between the ages of 12 and 22 “under the guise of conducting purported medical examinations at his medical clinic in Susanville, CA, and in hotel rooms and camp sites all over the world.”
A Homeland Security Investigations report lists more than 30 countries it says Reger has traveled to and says that Homeland Security and the FBI have interviewed several victims who’ve described abuse occurring in Poland, Ukraine and the Philippines.
Court documents also state: “These victims, who have been separately interviewed, tell similar stories of (the) defendant isolating them, choosing some of them for special treatment, groping their genitals, and giving them invasive and long hugs after conducting sexually abusive ‘exams.’”
The RN&R spoke with Morgan Stewart, an attorney with the firm of Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, who is filing a lawsuit against Reger.
“At this point, we are filing for, I think, 18 clients,” Stewart said during a phone interview. “(The case has) a wide variety of defendants, largely because he used so many different angles to abuse victims through various church organizations. He would take victims across state lines and out of the country, so we’ve got a sex trafficking allegation in there. … It’s a significant complaint. There are a myriad of issues, and we clearly have a significant amount of notice of reports to law enforcement over the years against him.”
The Susanville Police Department initiated criminal investigations of Reger in 2003, 2006 and 2007, based on multiple allegations of sexual abuse of minors, wrote FBI Special Agent Russell Quiniola in an affidavit. To his knowledge, “none of these investigations resulted in criminal charges against Reger.”
A victim goes public
Zack Winfrey, a 31-year-old Sacramento man—“Victim 1” in court documents—has relinquished his anonymity in the hope of encouraging more victims to come forward. He explained why he believes that Reger must have abused many victims in Reno.
Reger traveled through Reno on countless occasions, escorting groups of boys on the way to out-of-state camps. Winfrey, who grew up in Susanville, said that as a pre-teen and teen, he was among Reger’s charges on many occasions.
“There was a lot of Reno travel and stay that had nothing to do with being a point between trips,” Winfrey said, adding that Reger would bring groups of boys to the Ultimate Rush bungee-jumping attraction or the go-kart track at the Grand Sierra Resort, on overnight stays at the Courtyard by Marriott on South Virginia Street, “or just, like, shopping days with Brad.”
“I’ve heard stories about people in the early 2000s trying to report him to Reno authorities and not getting (anywhere),” Winfrey said. “I know dozens of his victims lived there.”
A records request to the Reno Police Department yielded no documents on Reger. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office replied to RN&R’s records request by saying, “there are no responsive documents to your request.”
In 2018, Winfrey aired his frustration and grief in an explicit and heart-wrenching blog post, detailing Reger’s alleged abuses. He talks of later wrestling with substance abuse and a compromised sense of self-worth.
Searching out victims and helping to build the case against Reger has become Winfrey’s primary pursuit. “It’s just my life—it’s my full-time job,” he said. “The first eight months of this investigation, we had to keep it a secret, not tell anybody, not do anything. And that almost drove me insane, just sitting around doing nothing.”
Court documents have now been unsealed and can be found on the Brad Reger Trial News website, which also links to news articles about Reger and resources for victims of sexual abuse.
Winfrey said that after the isolated feeling of having to stay mum about the investigation, he’s gone in “10,000 percent the opposite direction. It’s overwhelming and exhausting, but I’d so much rather have it this way than how it was in April,” he said.
He hopes that more victims will come forward—and there’s something he would like them to consider. “I think one thing that’s important in a case like this, a sex-abuse case, is that there are different levels of abuse,” Winfrey said. “Some people were abused a number of times more than others. Some people were abused in quote-unquote ‘worse’ ways than others.”
For some, he added, “the immediate thought is, well, ‘What happened to me wasn’t as bad, so I’m not important. I don’t matter as much to this,’ or … ‘I shouldn’t even worry.’ My thing is—it’s not a contest. … If you were victimized, you were victimized, and you need to be kind to yourself and treat yourself like a victim.”
Reger is in custody without bail at the Sacramento County Main Jail; he has pleaded not guilty. His nursing license was revoked in October. His next court appearance is currently scheduled for Jan. 18.
The FBI has requested that anyone who believes they or their minor dependents have been abused by Reger complete a questionnaire, which is available in five languages, or call 800-225-5324.