Drake Bell has been charged with child endangerment after alleged inappropriate conduct with a minor

Drake Bell is facing criminal charges for attempted endangering children and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. The former Nickelodeon star was charged in Cuyahoga County, Ohio after allegedly sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl he’d met online, before meeting her at a Cleveland concert in 2017, where he also engaged in inappropriate behavior, as reported by Fox 8. According to the teenager, she and Bell had a relationship for several years and he was allegedly messaging her for several months before they met in person, and she filed a police report against Bell in October 2018. Bell pleaded not guilty.

This isn’t the only time Bell has faced misconduct allegations. As Variety reported in 2020, Bell’s former girlfriend Melissa Lingafelt alleged that the Drake & Josh star had verbally and physically abused her throughout their relationship. She also alleged their relationship began when she was a minor. “When I started dating Drake, I was 16. I was home-schooled, 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 into physical—hitting, throwing, everything,” she said in the video. Lingafelt also said, “I don’t event want to get into the underage girls thing. I mean I will, but I’m scared.” Through a representative, Bell denied the allegations.