Drake Bell finally opened up about his child endangerment conviction and explained why he pleaded guilty to the crime.
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The former Nickelodeon star explained in an Instagram post that he owed an explanation to his fans on Thursday amid his sentencing to two years probation for child endangerment. He said in the video: “A lot of the news that you’ve been hearing, most of the news that you’ve heard recently, is entirely false and wrong, and I feel that you deserve and I owe you an explanation. Although I would love to, I’ve never moved to Mexico, I’ve never been a resident or a citizen of Mexico. I don’t have a Mexican passport. I didn’t get arrested, I didn’t go to jail.”
Bell continued to say that he has experienced being under investigation for three years due to false claims in Ohio: “If these claims were remotely true, my situation would be very different, and I would not be here at home with my wife and my son. But that being said, I’m not perfect, and I made mistakes. I responded to a fan whose age I didn’t know … yet when I became aware of their age, all conversation and communication stopped.”
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He further explained that his accuser frequently attended meet and greets after his concerts but he didn’t realize it was the same person he had communicated with online. However, Bell said their conversation was not sexually explicit despite the 19-year-old woman calling him a pedophile and accused him of abuse.
“I was not charged with anything physical. I was not charged with disseminating a photograph or images or anything like that. This is strictly over text messages. When I was presented with a plea deal because of the messages I felt that it was the best way to get this over quickly and for everybody involved to be able to move on and for me to get back to doing what I love and that’s making music for you.”
SOURCE: TOO FAB