Drake Bell, Nickelodeon star of 'Drake & Josh,' charged with attempted endangering children
- Drake Bell has been charged with attempted endangering children in Ohio, according to cleveland.com.
- The former Nickelodeon star is expected to plead guilty or no contest to two charges later this month.
- Bell starred in the Nick sitcom "Drake & Josh" from 2004 to 2007.
Drake Bell, the star of Nickelodeon sitcom "Drake & Josh," has been charged with attempted endangering children and misdemeanor child pornography involving a 15-year-old girl, according to Cleveland.com.
The 34-year-old actor and musician - whose legal name is Jared Drake Bell - is reportedly expected to plead guilty or no contest to the two counts later this month in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
The incidents happened at Bell's December 2017 concert in Cleveland and resulted in "serious physical harm" to the girl, the outlet reported. Court records reviewed by the site did not say how the girl was harmed.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley's office on Friday said that Bell and the girl established a relationship "several years" before the concert, cleveland.com reported.
"While there, Bell violated his duty of care and, in doing so, created a risk of harm to the victim," a prosecutor's office spokesman told the outlet.
The representative also said Bell sent the girl "inappropriate social media messages" leading up to the concert.
It was not immediately clear when Bell was taken into custody but Fox News reported that he was released Thursday on a $2,500 bond.
"The facts will be revealed in the courtroom," Bell's attorney, Ian Friedman, told cleveland.com.
The Daily Beast reported that Bell's ex-girlfriend witnessed him interacting online with "extremely young girls" and saw some "questionable, crazy shit on his computer."
"What he's being arrested for right now is a prime example of what I would witness, him having inappropriate conversations online with underage girls," Melissa Lingafelt, who dated Bell when she was 16 and he was 20, told the Beast.
"He was extremely physical. Multiple times the cops would be called," Lingafelt said. "I would run away; I would leave the house, because he had trained me to protect him. So, if the cops were called, I would just get out of there."
Bell co-starred on the Nick show "Drake & Josh," a series about two stepbrothers learning to get along, with actor Josh Peck, from 2004 to 2007. Following the show's finale, Bell went on to star in Nickelodeon original movies related to the animated show "Fairly Odd Parents."
He went on to rebrand himself as a Spanish-language singer after moving to Mexico, tweeting exclusively in Spanish, and changing his last name to "Campana" - which translates as "bell" in Spanish. He released his first single in Spanish, followed by a fully Spanish-language album in 2020.
In 2015, Bell was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
In August of last year, Lingafelt posted a TikTok accusing the former Nickelodeon star of abuse. Bell denied the allegations, saying he "never abused my ex-girlfriend or did so many of the other things Melissa falsely claimed on her TikTok video." Fans also demanded that she provide proof.
"As our relationship ended - more than a decade ago - we, unfortunately, both called each other terrible names, as often happens when couples are breaking up. But that is it," he added.
Lingafelt, now 31, told the Beast she gets "anxiety" thinking about her relationship with Bell.
"I want the people-the kids-to be able to talk for themselves and stand up for themselves. I'm glad they won't be hushed in the same way that I was," she said. "I hope that me talking about my bullshit was able to help someone else come forward. So, I guess it's bittersweet in a way, like, everyone who was calling me a piece of shit, can you just look at this?"