Former Cheyenne teacher could get 395 years in back-to-back child sex trials

A former Cheyenne fifth grade teacher will have back-to-back trials in April on charges of sexually touching young girls and possessing thousands of child pornography images. He could get up to 285 years in his first trial, and up to 110 in the second. Brian Michael Wrhel, 55, is facing 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a child for possessing illegal pornography. Under amended charges, the jury will have the option of convicting on attempted exploitation, which carries the same penalty.

That’s on top of the 285 years he could get if convicted on the original 16 felony charges relating to alleged sexual abuse of children. He’s scheduled for back-to-back trials next month, with his first case for sexual abuse beginning April 13 and the second for exploitation on April 20. Wrhel remains in the Laramie County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.

Wrhel was first arrested July 28, 2025. He was out on bond when he was re-arrested following a search of his electronic devices that uncovered more than 4,000 images of child sexual abuse material. A forensic download of one cellphone recovered approximately 2,102 images of CSAM and 5,372 internet searches from a pornographic website. Another cellphone yielded 1,196 images and 1,974 web searches.

Wrhel first came onto police radar when an elementary school principal reported that a fifth grade teacher had been allegedly touching students inappropriately in class. Some girls in forensic interviews described their teacher touching their bottoms, breasts, genitalia, torsos, thighs and backs during class. One girl said the teacher would touch her “private part” under her pants, and it felt “uncomfortable and weird.”