A Nevada special education teacher who won a national award for being “outstanding” allegedly abused an underage boy for years — starting when he made him vomit by forcing him to have sex in a cemetery, according to officials.
Autism specialist Douglas Trinkle, 52, was hit with a slew of serious sex charges over the boy, who was not one of his students but “a child 14 or 15 years of age” when it started, according to the charges.
The young accuser told cops that the teacher groomed him with gifts and expressed “his love” before making him “engage in sexual acts” starting in August 2023, according to police in Boulder City, about 20 miles from Las Vegas.
After expressing his feelings during a walk in a cemetery, the teacher got the boy to give him oral sex — which made the minor vomit in the graveyard, according to charging documents obtained by KLAS.
Even after that, the teacher pulled down the young boy’s pants and “put it in me,” the accuser told cops, while saying he was scared of his mom finding out.
Trinkle allegedly then sexually abused his victim two or three times a week for around two years — and didn’t wear condoms, according to police.
The high school teacher was initially arrested a month ago on charges of statutory sexual seduction, sexual assault against a child under the age of 16, and two counts of child abuse and lewdness committed with a child 14 or 15 years of age, Klas said. He remains in custody on $75,000 bond.
Trinkle worked at Cimarron-Memorial High School but “the allegations do not involve any students ,” principal Colin McNaught stressed in an email seen by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Trinkle has worked in numerous schools across Nevada since getting his teaching license in 2012 – and in 2016 won a national Outstanding Special Education Teacher Award, KLAS reported.
“Nominated by a fellow Variety School teacher, Trinkle was described as a passionate, dedicated and creative leader who strives to improve his instructional strategies and expectations, always going above and beyond to support students as well as colleagues,” a Clark County school district official said at the time, praising the teacher’s work helping students “grow.”
