KS coach charged with filming teen wrestlers in shower as police look for more victims
A Kansas middle school teacher and high school wrestling coach who was arrested following a scuffle with police officers trying to seize his cellphone in 2024 has been charged with producing child pornography.
Federal prosecutors allege Ryan Brungardt, 37, of Salina, filmed three children showering in a Newton High School locker room on Jan. 13, 2024, during the Tournament of Champions wrestling tournament.
Brungardt was a Lakewood Middle School social studies teacher and wrestling coach for Salina Central High School in Salina at the time.
He is charged in federal court with two counts of production of child pornography and one count of attempted production of child pornography, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas says. He made his initial appearance in court on Wednesday and has a detention hearing scheduled for March 9.
Brungardt was arrested in January 2024 at the Salina middle school where he worked after he struggled with and resisted officers who had a warrant to seize his cellphone. Police have said Brungardt snatched the phone away from detectives and started breaking it, causing its lithium battery to rupture. The broken battery produced smoke and a small fire in the school office and the middle school had to be evacuated when a fire alarm went off, The Eagle previously reported.
Newton police detectives, who were in Salina to serve the warrant, used a taser on Brungardt when he continued to resist, The Eagle reported. Two Newton police detectives and one Salina police officer suffered minor injuries in the scuffle.
The principal of Winfield High School alerted law enforcement to the illegal filming on Jan. 23, 2024, after three teens said they thought Brungardt had recorded them showering after he entered the boy’s locker room, an affidavit says. Video footage from Newton High School captured Brungardt entering the boys’ locker room five times within 45 minutes. Each time he would stay in the locker room for about two minutes before leaving, the affidavit says the video showed.
On one occasion when Brungardt exited, he was “looking at his cell phone,” the affidavit says.
Brungardt also went into the girls’ locker room, which boys also used that day to change and shower, for about 30 seconds, the affidavit says.
The teens told authorities that Brungardt had paced around the locker room, held his phone under his arm or in his back pocket while keeping its camera pointed toward them and “would hold his phone in an odd manner while ostensibly using the urinal,” the affidavit says.
“The minor victims found this odd and concerning. In talking with other minors present at the event, they found that Brungardt was acting in this manner with others. As such, the minors reported it to their coach,” the affidavit says.
Federal prosecutors said Thursday that investigators are working to review more seized cellphone videos they think Brungardt recorded at wrestling meets and tournaments in Newton, Hays, Garden City and Salina during the 2023-24 season.
“Anyone who believes they witnessed crimes or any suspicious activity at these events is asked to contact the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at 785-600-8790 or report at www.kbi.ks.gov/sar,” the news release says.
Brungardt faces 15 to 30 years in federal prison on each count if he is convicted.
This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 3:00 PM.
