A warning: this story contains references to child sex abuse.
Juneau’s Echo Ranch Bible Camp is among the places where a California man allegedly abused boys over the span of decades. Now, the people who say they were victims of Bradley Earl Reger are trying to hold the institutions where the abuse took place accountable.
Reger was affiliated with Juneau’s Echo Ranch Bible camp for about 30 years. In the 1970s, the California resident volunteered as a nurse there. He also brought minors on trips to the camp from his home in California as recently as the early 2000s. Multiple men have accused Reger of abuse at the camp, under the guise of medical care.
Reger was already criminally indicted on federal sexual abuse charges last year. But a recent lawsuit, which names Echo Ranch’s owner, Avant Ministries, aims to hold the organizations Reger was involved with accountable, too.
California resident Zack Winfrey, the lead plaintiff in the recent suit, attended Reger’s home church in California as a kid. He said Reger abused him for years in California and on trips to Alaska. Winfrey said the people around Reger at his church – and organizations like Echo Ranch – allowed it to happen.
“Brad could have been stopped decades ago,” he said. “I mean, some of them not even just reporting to — some of them were in the positions of power to completely cut them off from this, and didn’t do it.”
Winfrey reached out to lawyers about taking legal action against organizations Reger worked and volunteered for. Now, 18 of Reger’s alleged victims are involved in the lawsuit.
“But there’s even more victims signing on now,” he said.
Morgan Stewart is one of Winfrey’s lawyers. He’s a partner at the law firm Manly, Stewart, and Finaldi. They specialize in representing victims in widespread child sexual abuse cases at churches and schools.
“It’s essentially taking back their power over a perpetrator and those who allowed the perpetrator to abuse them,” Stewart said.
He said lawsuits like this one target the people who turned a blind eye and enabled abusers.
“The intent is to hold those entities accountable for it, their endorsement, approval and participation in his sexual abuse of these young men,” he said.
Stewart said the total number of Reger’s victims could be in the hundreds.
His firm has won hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements in famous child abuse cases. For instance, those involving the Roman Catholic Church and Larry Nassar, the U.S. Olympics Gymnastics physician who assaulted hundreds of athletes.
When asked for comment, a lawyer representing Avant Ministries wrote in an email that they will be “aggressively defending” the claims against the organization.
As news of the lawsuit spreads, Winfrey, the lead plaintiff in the case, hopes more victims of Reger will come forward.
The FBI has an online form for anyone who wants to report that they — or their minor dependent — may have been victimized by Bradley Reger.
Survivors of sexual abuse in Juneau can call AWARE at 907-586-1090 to find resources for support. There is also a national 24-hour phone and online chat hotline that offers counseling and support.
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