Why was Drake Bell charged and arrested?
DRAKE Bell rose to fame when he starred in the hit Nickelodeon TV show Drake & Josh from 2004 to 2007.
While he used to be a beloved actor, he fell from grace when he was hit with child endangerment charges in 2021.
Why was Drake Bell charged and arrested?
Drake Bell was arrested in Ohio and charged with the attempted endangering of children and disseminating matters harmful to juveniles in June 2021.
He was sentenced to two years probation and 200 hours of community service.
The actor was also mandated to register as a sex offender and cut all contact with the victim.
Drake appeared in Cuyahoga County court in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 3, pleading not guilty to his charges and posting a $2,500 bond.
The alleged incident happened four years ago in December 2017, but he was not indicted until May 2021.
Drake was branded a "monster" by his teen victim after the actor was sentenced to two years of probation for sending sexually explicit messages to the minor.
The actor previously pleaded not guilty on June 23 to "attempting to endanger children"; after a 15-year-old girl said he sent her "inappropriate" messages.
Upon changing his plea deal, Drake apologized to the victim, saying: "Today I accept this plea because my conduct was wrong.
"I’m sorry that the victim was harmed in any way — that was obviously not my intention.
“I have taken this matter very, very seriously, and again I just want to apologize to her and anyone else who may have been affected by my actions.”
What are other allegations made against Drake Bell?
The Nickelodeon star was previously accused of "verbal and physical abuse" by his ex-girlfriend, though he also denied those claims.
Melissa Lingafelt, who goes by the stage name Jimi Ono, claimed in a TikTok video that she was subjected to "the worst type of verbal abuse you could imagine," which she claimed later turned physical.
The pair dated in 2006 for around two years before they called it quits.
Lingafelt said: "I started dating Drake when I was 16. I was homeschooled, I moved in with him. I was singing. It wasn't until about a year when the verbal abuse started, and when I say verbal abuse, imagine the worst type of verbal abuse you could imagine and that's what I got."
She continued: "The verbal abuse then turned to physical. Hitting, throwing. Everything. At the pinnacle of it, he dragged me down the stairs in our house in Los Feliz, my face hit every step on the way down. I have photos of this."
"I don't even want to get into the underaged girls thing," she said. "I mean, I will. But I'm scared."
Bell said that he "never abused my ex-girlfriend or did so many of the other things Melissa falsely claimed on her TikTok video," in a statement to People
The actor then said Lingafelt's actions were a "misguided quest for more money or attention," and that he is reviewing "legal options."
What is Drake Bell doing now?
After a successful Nickelodeon career, Drake Bell went on to continue making music.
With a huge chunk of his fanbase hailing from Mexico, he even started marketing himself as Drake Campana instead of his actual name.
He has released three albums since 2014: Ready Steady Go!, The Lost Album, and Sesiones En Casa.
In March 2024, the singer made headlines when he revealed in the Investigation Discovery documentary titled Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV that he had been sexually abused by his former acting and dialogue coach, Brian Peck, when he was a teenager.
Peck had been involved in several of Dan Schneider's projects in the early 2000s, including The Amanda Show.
In the documentary, Bell painfully recalled a period in his life when he was sexually abused by Peck.
“Everything changed with Brian one morning. I knew that my life was going to be absolutely completely different from that point on,” he said. “It just became this secret that I had held onto.”
“I was sleeping on the couch where I would usually sleep. I woke up to him — I opened my eyes, I woke up and he was sexually assaulting me. I froze and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react, and I have no idea how to get out of this situation."
He said Peck "was so apologetic" and assured him that it would never happen again, but Bell revealed that it was "not a one-time thing."
“He figured out how to convince my mom and everyone around to, anytime I would have an audition or anytime I needed to work on dialogue or anything, I somehow ended up back at Brian’s house and it just got worse and worse and worse and worse. I was just trapped. I had no way out,” he added.
“The abuse was extensive and it got pretty brutal. I don’t know how to elaborate on that on camera, really… Why don’t you think of the worst stuff that someone could do to somebody as a sexual assault, and then I’ll answer your question. I don’t know how else to put it.”
Bell didn't report Peck to the authorities right away, but he did when Peck tried to get himself involved in Drake & Josh.
“I was like, ‘That is not going to happen, you’re not coming anywhere near this show,'" he said.
Peck was arrested in August 2003 but it wasn't until October 2004 that he received his sentence.
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The disgraced acting coach pleaded no contest to two counts of child sexual abuse and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
He was also mandated to register as a sex offender.