Former Nickelodeon actor Drake Bell will serve two years probation and 200 hours of community service.
That’s what Judge Timothy McCormick declared in a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas courtroom on Monday (July 12). He was also ordered to have no contact with the victim.
The sentencing comes after a victim impact statement that included severe allegations against Bell, with firm denials by the defense.
Bell, whose legal name is Jared Bell, pleaded guilty last month to attempted endangering children and disseminated matter harmful to juveniles, court records show.
On Monday, Bell and the victim — whose name has not been publicly disclosed — appeared in court via Zoom. Cleveland's WKYC live-streamed the sentencing hearing.
Though the victim is an adult, she was a minor at the time of the allegations.
“I chose to write this statement because I want justice to be served more than anything,” the victim said, going on to describe the pain that Bell’s crimes have caused her and her family.
Referring to herself as “one of his biggest fans,” the victim said that Bell began “grooming me when I was 12 years old.”
When she was 11, her aunt realized she had a metal friend with the Nickelodeon star, according to the victim. That’s how they began communicating.
“I adored him and he instantly made me feel like he adored me right back,” she said. She began to confide in him with personal information, and at 15, noticed a “huge shift” in the “blatantly sexual” way he spoke to her, she alleged.
The victim said in court that she became fearful of Bell, and felt a “tremendous amount of stress and shame.”
While delivering an allegation that Bell's defense attorney strongly denied, the victim called out Bell’s expression: “Don’t look at me like that!”
Bell’s attorney, Ian Friedman, clapped back at the victim's allegations during her statement.
“There’s no question that Drake has accepted his responsibility in this case,” Friedman said, referencing Bell’s plea.
Friedman said Bell is accepting the guilty plea because he learned her age at a later time, and ended inappropriate conversations with her when he learned her age. Friedman later added that if the victim’s additional claims during the sentencing hearing were correct, investigators would have aggressively pursued evidence and charges would be different today.
“There was certainly concern for the victim’s reality in her case and in her claims,” Friedman said, later suggesting that the victim reported Bell because he did not “respond to her liking.”
“(Bell's) conduct was not correct, it was not proper for what he did, and unfortunately he did not know who he was speaking with and the damage he was going to do,” Friedman said.
Bell also made a statement to the court:
“I accept this plea because my conduct was wrong. I’m sorry that the victim was harmed in any way…I have taken this matter very, very seriously, and again, I just want to apologize to her and anyone else who my have been affected by my actions.”
The now-35-year-old actor initially pleaded not guilty to the accusations. The switch reportedly came after reaching a plea agreement, according to PEOPLE.
Bell was accused of having inappropriate and sexual conversations with a then-15-year-old on December 1, 2017. He was in Cleveland performing a concert on that date.
Previous reports state that the victim reported the incident to her local police department in Canada nearly a year later, and those authorities relayed the allegations to the Cleveland Division of Police, which investigated the former “Drake & Josh” actor.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Tyler Sinclair previously confirmed that Bell and the victim “developed a relationship” years before the 2017 concert, and Bell sent her “inappropriate social media messages,” according to the Associated Press.
TMZ previously reported that Bell could have faced up to 18 months in prison because of the felony charge.
“A grown man does not engage in inappropriate text messages to a teenager… You did take advantage in that regard,” Judge McCormick said, delivering Bell's sentence. “I hope you truly are remorseful.”