Darrin Bell Released From Jail; Charges Added
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A Sacramento judge released Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Darrin Bell from custody Thursday ahead of a Feb. 4 court date as prosecutors added more child porn allegations to his case. The 49-year-old Bell faces a number of conditions of his release — and yet more charges filed in an amended complaint by Sacramento County prosecutors who now allege the acclaimed cartoonist collected thousands of explicit images of children.
Darrell Smith for The Sacramento Bee is reporting on Darrin Bell’s court hearing today and noted additional charges and conditional release. Bell was taken into custody on January 15, 2025.
MSN also carries the article with no paywall:
Prosecutors presented three new allegations at the Thursday bail hearing before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shauna Franklin — two of unlawfully possessing child sexual content on June 17-18, 2024; and a third similar possession charge, on Jan. 15, the day of Bell’s arrest by Sacramento County sheriff’s investigators. They also argued for a search of all of Bell’s electronic devices and to bar Bell, a father of four children, from any contact with minors.
Michelle Carlson, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, alleged thousands of images including those of infants and toddlers were stored on Bell’s computers; as well as other images believed created via artificial intelligence.
KCRA-TV Sacramento is reporting Darrin Bell pleaded Not Guilty and was free on a no-bail, monitored release.
The nationally recognized cartoonist Darrin Bell pleaded not guilty to child pornography possession charges Thursday and was granted pre-trial release, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
An amended criminal complaint shows he now faces two criminal counts, up from one.
On Thursday, Bell was granted pre-trial release with GPS monitoring and other conditions, according to the DA’s office. Jail records showed he had not yet been released, as of 4 p.m. on Thursday.
Adding to the TDC Darrin Bell Update.
In other news the Comics Kingdom Candorville site has not uploaded any DAILY strips beyond January 25 (above), which MAY be the last Candorville daily strip. They also have the January 26, 2025 Sunday page up, but that MAY continue for a couple more weeks as Sundays are created earlier than daily strips. Bell’s political cartoon page at Comics Kingdom hasn’t been updated since January 10, 2025.
Our Los Angeles correspondent, Jim Ellwanger, tells us that The Los Angeles Times has signed up Curtis, also a King Features Syndicate comic strip, to replace Candorville on their comics page.
Jonathan Lemon informs us, in the comments below, that The San Francisco Chronicle (a Hearst paper) has replaced Candorville with the King Features Syndicate (a Hearst company) strip Dumplings.
feature photo: Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee
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