Drake Bell pleads guilty to child endangerment

US actor Jared ‘Drake’ Bell who starred in the Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh, has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempting to endanger children and a misdemeanour charge of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles.

Bell appeared virtually via Zoom at a pretrial hearing in Ohio in what the judge noted was a plea agreement.

He could face up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine for the felony charge, and up to six months in county jail and a $1,000 fine.

Variety reports the charges stem from an incident that took place between a then-31-year-old Bell and a 15-year-old girl in 2017 with subsequent social media messages that were “at times … sexual in nature.”

Drake & Josh aired on Nickelodeon from 2004 to 2007, and featured Bell and co-star Josh Peck as stepbrothers. In 2010 he was awarded the Big Kid Award at Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards, held at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

Updated: Drake Bell was sentenced in Cleveland on Monday to two years probation on charges relating to a girl who met him online and attended one of his concerts in Ohio when she was 15.