PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A former Sherwood High School teacher has been convicted of sex crimes involving a child in Multnomah County.
Sixty-year-old Brian Trostel pleaded guilty to encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree, two counts of invasion of personal privacy in the first degree and one count of invasion of personal privacy in the second degree, according to the Multnomah County district attorney’s office. Trostel initially faced a 29-count indictment when the charges were announced in early January.
He faces 11 months in jail for the conviction, and will have to register as a sex offender and surrender his teacher’s license; he had been a history teacher at Sherwood High School.
Authorities said the investigation started when someone who knows Trostel found images of a 14-year-old girl inside her bedroom while she was “in a state of nudity.” Officials said the teen victim and her family used to live in Trostel’s neighborhood.
Investigators eventually determined Trostel took the photos of the girl while he was hiding behind a fence surrounded by trees and other plants, according to the district attorney’s office.
In her impact statement to the court, the victim said, in part, “What happened to me shouldn’t have, and I wish so strongly that it hadn’t. But it did. And it makes me disgusted; it makes me angry, and it makes me really sad. … I don’t want to think about what he did. It’s easier to think about doing whatever I can do to keep others from experiencing it.”
Trostel was placed on administrative leave on Dec. 18, 2020, when the Sherwood School District learned about the investigation, according to KOIN 6 News media partner Portland Tribune. He resigned from his position on March 2, according to a district spokesperson.
KOIN 6 News has reached out to Sherwood High School for a statement on Trostel’s conviction.
He’s due in court for sentencing on May 25.