Drake Bell from Drake & Josh has pleaded not guilty after being indicted for a 2017 incident in which he allegedly attempted to endanger an underage teenage girl.
The 34-year-old former Nickelodeon star and musician, whose legal name is Jared Drake Bell, was detained by police in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday, June 3 and later released after posting a $2,500 bond, according to court records obtained by E! News. At his arraignment that day at Cuyahoga County Court, he pleaded not guilty after being indicted on one count of attempted endangering children, a fourth-degree felony, and one count of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, a first-degree misdemeanor, a Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson told E! News on Friday, June 4.
In his indictment, filed on May 21 and obtained by E! News, Bell was accused of committing the alleged crimes on or around Dec. 1, 2017 against a 15-year-old girl at a Cleveland nightclub. The prosecutor’s office spokesperson told E! News that a police investigation “revealed that the victim, who had established a relationship with Bell several years prior, attended his concert in December 2017. While there, Bell violated his duty of care and, in doing so, created a risk of harm to the victim. The investigation also revealed that months leading up to the concert, Bell sent the victim inappropriate social media messages.”