Drake Bell explains why he pleaded guilty despite denying child grooming charges

Former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell has denied grooming a minor girl and explained why he pled guilty to child endangerment charges in 2021.

Bell, 37, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and a misdemeanour charge of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. He was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and two years of probation.

“I responded on some DMs and was incredibly irresponsible and got myself into conversations that I shouldn’t have had,” he said on the Not Skinny but Not Fat podcast.

“I ended up finding out that I was talking to someone that I shouldn’t have been talking to, and it snowballed into these allegations that were not true, and it just turned into this big thing.”

The victim, now an adult woman, had reported the actor and musician to police in 2018. She alleged that Bell had groomed her since she was 12 and accused him of sexual contact with her at one of his concerts when she was 15.

She added that she felt protected by him initially in online chats, but his messages turned “blatantly sexual” after she turned 15.

“I was definitely one of his biggest fans,” the victim, who remained anonymous, said at Bell’s sentencing.

“Jared Drake Bell is a paedophile and that is his legacy,” she added.

Bell admitted that the conversation was inappropriate but claimed that he pleaded guilty only to shield his family.

“I was being investigated, and that was really difficult on my family, and thankfully through 18 months of subpoenaing my social media and computers and witnesses and everything, it turned out a lot of most of what was being accused of me was not true,” he said.

“But I did have these conversations, and so I took responsibility for that and ended up pleading guilty because just financially I was just devastated. I had just had a son and I didn’t want to put my family through all of this anymore. So I ended up going through the process the way that I did and [I’m] very regretful.”

Bell has a son with Janet Von Schmeling, who filed for divorce from the actor in 2023 citing irreconcilable differences.

Bell said he was unaware of how old the victim was and that he “cut communications” with her as soon as he found out.

“I think she got upset, and she was coming to concerts still, and I was doing everything I could to kind of keep my distance,” he said.

“Then she made all these allegations of things that happened at a concert, but throughout the investigation, there were witnesses who were there the whole time who refuted it, people who weren’t even connected with me that were friends of hers and her family’s that were there the whole time. And a lot of the things that she said about sending inappropriate pictures and things like this, it was able to be investigated and show that none of that existed.”

At Bell’s sentencing, however, Cuyahoga County judge Timothy McCormick stated that he had heard “a lot of serious and disturbing allegations”, and that Bell used his position in the entertainment industry to speak to a teenager.

“The fact of the matter is your position and celebrity status let you nurture this relationship,” McCormick said.

In September 2021, Bell spoke about his conviction in a video posted on Instagram. He claimed the allegations against him were “false” but he pleaded guilty to resolve the matter quickly.

“It’s not me telling you that the claims are false, but the state of Ohio has proven claims to be false. If these claims were remotely true, my situation would be very different. I would not be here at home with my wife and my son,” he said.

Bell’s conviction is in the news again after he spoke up about suffering sexual abuse at the hands of Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck.

“The abuse was extensive, and it got pretty brutal. I really don’t know how to elaborate on that on camera,” Bell said in an episode of the docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. He added that he faced a “slow decline” in his mental health, and that the “misinformation” from his child endangerment case “absolutely destroyed” him.

Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison for lewd conduct with a minor in 2004. Bell had provided anonymous testimony at the trial.

Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at www.rapecrisis.org.uk. If you are in the US, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673).