Actor Drake Bell, full name Jared Drake Bell, best known for his roles as Drake in Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh and Spider-Man in Disney’s Ultimate Spider-Man, has been criminally charged following an investigation into his alleged sending of sexual messages to an underage fan.
As first reported by Fox 8, Bell was arrested and charged in relation to a supposed December 2017 incident in which he “allegedly engaged in an inappropriate chat with [an underage girl] that, at times, was sexual in nature.”
According to police reports obtained by the local Ohio Fox affiliate, authorities were first made aware of Bell’s supposed misconduct in 2018 when his alleged victim, a 15-year-old Canadian fan, reported an “incident involving Bell that occurred the previous year in Cleveland” to her local Canadian police department.
Canadian authorities in turn relayed the information to police in Cleveland, who quickly launched an investigation into the young fan’s accusations.