Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist arrested, accused of possession of child sex abuse videos

A Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist was arrested Wednesday and accused of possessing dozens of child sex abuse videos, police said.

A search warrant was served Wednesday at the home of Darrin Bell, 49, the Sacramento County, California, Sheriff’s Office said Thursday in a statement on X. Bell possessed 134 videos deemed child sex abuse material, the sheriff’s office said.

The investigation began when detectives fielded a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone was uploading 18 files of child sex abuse videos, the sheriff’s office said.

Bell is being charged under a new California law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, that criminalizes possessing artificial intelligence-generated child sex abuse material, marking the first arrest under the law by detectives who focus on internet crimes against children, the sheriff’s office said.

Bell was being held on $1 million bail Thursday at the Sacramento County Main Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday. It was unclear Thursday afternoon whether he had an attorney.

A woman who identified herself as Bell’s wife said Thursday afternoon in a brief telephone interview, “Pray for me and my children.”

She declined to comment further.

Bell was called a “well-known cartoonist, having been featured in several prominent publications” by the sheriff’s office.

Bell’s X account identifies him as a “Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, creator of the comic strip ‘Candorville,’ author of ‘The Talk.'”

Bell won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 2019 as a freelancer. He was recognized for “beautiful and daring editorial cartoons that took on issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration,” according to the awards’ website.

Bell also received the 2015 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Editorial Cartooning, his biography on Amazon says. He is also well-known for the comic strip “Rudy Park.”

Bell is a Los Angeles native and has four children, according to the biography.