Former attorney with Utah Attorney’s General Office arrested for a 2nd time
Sep 15, 2022, 9:30 PM | Updated: Dec 29, 2022, 11:27 am
The Utah County Sheriff's Office is pictured in Spanish Fork on Friday, Dec. 4, 2020. Photo credit: Yukai Peng, Deseret News
SPANISH FORK, Utah — The Utah County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday that a former attorney with the Utah Attorney General’s Office has been arrested for a second time.
Law enforcement personnel say Gary Lee Bell was arrested Tuesday after they say child porn was allegedly found on his cell phone. Authorities believe Bell produced the alleged material.
Bell, 66, was originally arrested on Aug. 24 for investigation of sexual exploitation of a minor.
According to a press release from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, Bell was let out of jail on Sept. 7, after a judge ordered his release. The judge ordered him to wear a GPS tracker.
Authorities seized the electronic devices from Bell’s home and analyzed the items. Once the report on those items was returned, a detective discovered inappropriate material on a memory card. The detective was able to recognize items in the images from photos taken in Bell’s home when authorities served the warrant last month.
The detective was later able to confirm the items in the images matched those items that were in his house on the day Bell was arrested.
Bell has been booked into the Utah County Jail on suspicion of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony. He has also been booked on suspicion of aggravated sodomy on a child, also a first-degree felony. Additionally, he has been booked on suspicion of 12 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
A judge has ordered that the former attorney be held without bail.
Read more:
- Child protection prosecutor arrested for child porn
- Multiple arrests after statewide crackdown on child porn
