Drake Bell has been arrested on alleged attempted child endangerment charges.
Drake Bell
The former ‘Drake & Josh’ star is facing criminal charges in Ohio, after he was charged with alleged attempted endangering children and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, according to court documents obtained by People magazine on Friday (04.06.21).
In the documents, the Cleveland Division of Police is listed as Bell's arresting agency, though the date of the arrest is not disclosed.
The 34-year-old actor has already posted his bond, which was set at $2,500, after he appeared in Cuyahoga County court this week and pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
Bell agreed to not have contact with his alleged victim upon being released, and has been required to submit a DNA specimen.
The actor is expected to appear in a pre-trial hearing on June 23.
Further details about the alleged incident which led to his arrest are not known, but according to local NBC affiliate KXAN, the incident occurred on December 1, 2017, the same day the actor was scheduled to perform at a venue in Cleveland, Ohio.
The arrest comes almost one year after Bell’s former girlfriend, Melissa Lingafelt, accused him of being physically and verbally abuse to her during their relationship.
Melissa dated Bell in 2006 for around two years, and alleged the actor once dragged her down the stairs of their house.
In a video on TikTok posted in August 2020, she said: "First off I'd like to start out by saying, I don't really care if anyone believes me, as this is my story and my life, and something that I went through.
"It wasn't until recently that I actually realised that abuse isn't something that all women have to go through.
"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 ever imagine, and that was what I got.
"It then turned to physical - hitting, throwing, everything. At the pinnacle of it, he dragged me down the stairs of our house on Los Feliz. My face hit every step on the way down. I have photos of this.”
And at the time, Bell denied Melissa’s claims.
He said in a statement: "I never abused my ex-girlfriend or did so many of the other things Melissa falsely claimed on her TikTok video.
"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.”
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