Jury trial set Sept. 25 for Bartlesville teacher accused of providing student cocaine
More than a year after former Bartlesville High School teacher Trey Cabler was arrested on a felony charge, his fate will likely be in the hands of 12 jurors soon.
A jury trial is set to begin in September at the Washington County District Court that could bring a conclusion to a thorny issue involving a male teacher allegedly providing drugs and alcohol to former female students.
At issue, two female students testified Cabler used social media to solicit them to come to his apartment and provided one student with alcohol on multiple occasions and the other student with cocaine, according to court documents.
After resigning in March of last year as the speech and debate teacher amidst an investigation into possible misconduct, Cabler was formally charged the next month of allegedly supplying alcohol to an underaged person and distributing a controlled dangerous substance within 2,000 feet of a park or school.
If convicted of the felony drug charge, Cabler faces zero to seven years in prison and up to a $100,000 fine, a far cry from the four years to life under the previous punishment guidelines updated in 2018 by the state Legislature.
While still serious, the alcohol charge is only a misdemeanor and carries no more than a year in county jail or up to a $500 fine or jail and a fine, according to state statutes.
District Attorney Will Drake indicated Cabler's trial might be later in the jury docket since the courts prioritize defendants currently incarcerated. Cabler is out on a $50,000 bail since he was charged.
Recap of the charges
A police affidavit reveals that the students came forward independently to report Cabler's behavior. One student, a minor, told police Cabler invited her over to "get day drunk," but she declined. Cabler denied this claim but admitted to providing alcohol to the female student on three separate occasions.
The other student, an 18-year-old, testified to the court she had confided in Cabler about her history of substance abuse, believing she would not be judged. She told Cabler about her struggle with addiction to cocaine, fentanyl and Xanax and going to rehab during her junior year of high school, according to court documents.
The former student testified that she and Cabler communicated via social media on several occasions about him providing her with cocaine, court records show. She alleges she was absent from school in March of 2022 and set up a meeting with Cabler, where he provided her with a plastic baggie that held cocaine. Cabler resigned a few days after this alleged delivery.
Bartlesville Police Officer Brett Miquelon testified that he reviewed security footage from the meeting and didn't witness any delivery of items between Cabler and the student, according to court documents. He also testified no controlled drugs were recovered during the investigation.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Jury trial set for teacher accused of providing student with cocaine
