‘Flashbacks and night terrors’: Ex-Nevada prison guard sentenced for child abuse

Victims in the child abuse case of an ex-Nevada Department of Corrections officer spoke to a judge Monday about the betrayal of trust and lasting trauma they felt.

“The things that happened should never happen to a child,” one told the judge.

The other victim said, “Being violated by the defendant has stuck with me with flashbacks and night terrors up until now.”

He added: “I know, despite the sentencing, that I’ll still live in the current fear I live in: that he could come get, hurt or violate me in any way despite me being bigger and stronger than I was then as a young child. Ever since it happened, I was trapped by a fear: the fear if I told, it would get worse.”

After hearing from the victims and others, District Judge Tina Talim sentenced Derland Blake, 41, to probation and 728 days in jail.

Blake, who was accused of raping two young boys from 2013 to 2015, reached a plea deal in February in which he pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse, neglect or endangerment.

He entered a type of guilty plea known as an Alford plea, meaning he admitted only that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. Prosecutors agreed not to oppose probation at his sentencing, as long as he was not deemed a high risk to reoffend.

As he was handcuffed, Blake extended his middle finger to the courtroom gallery.

Blake was arrested in 2021 and previously faced counts of sexual assault with a minor under 14, lewdness with a child under 14 and sexually motivated coercion. The victims are now teenagers, according to their stepfather.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal typically does not identify victims in sexual assault cases. For that reason, the news organization is not naming the victims or relatives who spoke in court.

“There was no sexual assault,” defense attorney Garrett Ogata said after court, adding, “He’s passed lie detector tests of not sexually abusing these boys.”

The defendant was sentenced to probation in 2015 after he admitted that he helped smuggle smartphones, CDs, chicken and alcohol into High Desert State Prison.

He also was accused of lewdness with a child in a 2016 case but pleaded guilty to attempted abuse, neglect or endangerment of a child, according to court records. In that case, he was sentenced to probation, as well.

In court on Monday, the stepfather of the victims in Blake’s current case described a sense of helplessness.

“The former Marine and current law enforcement officer in me wishes I could stop him, but I can’t,” he said in court, his voice trembling with emotion. “Unfortunately, you can’t stop him, either. Giving him a sentence of jail or prison time today will only delay the inevitable.”

He then urged the judge to revoke Blake’s plea agreement and give him “an appropriate amount of jail or prison time.”

Talim said she had to respect prosecutors’ decision to resolve the case, while ensuring that Blake’s probation had conditions reflecting the severity of the crime.

“I hear your anger,” the judge told the victims. “I see your pain.”

She added: “You are not broken. You have so much ahead of you and nothing that happens, nothing I do here is ever going to fix what happened to you, but I hope that you see justice being served here, and I hope that you take this opportunity and move forward and that you can heal, and I wish you nothing but the best.”

In a statement to the court, Blake said he was “capable of following the rules” and was ready to “put this in the past and move on.”

The victims’ mother said her children were autistic and had trusted Blake.

Probation, she said, would not deter him, but jail time would give him an opportunity to access resources and change.

“This individual has gone on with his life, living as though he is invincible and unscathed by the situations he’s put himself in with the law,” she told the judge. “In my family’s eyes, he is a felon and a pedophile and will always bear these titles. He has never shown any type of remorse.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.