Carlos DeAngelo Bell
UPDATE
LA PLATA, Md. —Tony Covington, State’s Attorney for Charles County announced that on Tuesday, April 3, 2018, Charles County Circuit Court Judge Amy J. Bragunier sentenced Carlos Deangelo Bell, 30 of Waldorf, to 350 years suspend all but 190 years in prison for multiple counts of Sexual Abuse of a Minor, 2nd Degree Sexual Offense, 3rd Degree Sexual Offense, Child Pornography Filming, Attempted Transmission of HIV, and related charges.
On June 30, 2017, Bell was arrested at his home for charges of child pornography and assault. An investigation of Bell began in December of 2016 after a parent reported a suspicious text sent to a student’s cellular device. Bell, who was working for Charles County Public Schools as an instructional assistant at Benjamin Stoddert Middle School and a track coach at La Plata High School, was immediately placed on administrative leave and ordered to have no contact with students.
Detectives conducted a search on Bell’s work computer with no suspicious results. Detectives also executed a search warrant on Bell’s home, where his personal computer and other electronics were retrieved and submitted to the Maryland State Police Crime Lab for examination. Through the examination, the Maryland State Police Crime Lab found numerous videos that depicted Bell sexually assaulting minors. It was confirmed that the videos were produced on school property and at Bell’s home in Waldorf, Maryland. The time frame of the alleged conduct spans approximately 3 years from the beginning of 2014 through June of 2017. The ages of the victims at the time the offenses were committed range from 11 years old to 17 years old.
During the investigation, Bell admitted that he was HIV positive at the time of the assaults. Other evidence uncovered by investigators corroborated Bell’s disclosure. To this date, the State is not aware of any victims having tested positive for HIV.
On January 5, 2018, Bell entered a guilty plea in Circuit Court in front of the Honorable Judge Amy J. Bragunier to 27 counts ranging from Sexual Abuse of a Minor, Second Degree Sex Offense and other related charges.
During sentencing, Assistant State’s Attorney Sarah Freeman told the court, “Even after being suspended from his job with the schools on the suspicion of inappropriate solicitation of a minor, even after detectives searched his house and seized all the electronic devices he knew contained his self-made child pornography, the abuse of minors still continued up to two weeks prior to his arrest. That is brazen and bold. He has no remorse. All he cared about was his own immoral desires. And this was not an isolated incident. This was pedophilia at its worst. The defendant targeted and abused at-risk kids, those that were most susceptible to his manipulations”.
In arguing to the Court that it should impose a sentence that would keep Bell in jail for the rest of his life, State’s Attorney Covington explained, “Retribution is one of the legitimate goals of sentencing in a criminal case. The retribution imposed by our Courts help our victims and communities to believe that justice can be and will be done. And it keeps citizens from taking matters into their hands through vigilantism. Given the huge impact on the dozens of victims in this case, retribution should be the top goal in sentencing Carlos Bell. This community has been stunned by the immoral and horrific acts of this defendant and I am asking this Court, by its sentence, to give voice to the communities’ outrage. Let Mr. Bell, and anyone else that is watching, know that abusing our children will not be tolerated and very well may cost you your freedom for the rest of your life.”
After sentencing, when asked to comment on the Court’s sentence, Covington commented, “The Court essentially imposed the exact sentence we recommended. I certainly can’t complain about a sentence that is the maximum under the plea agreement and one we requested. Let’s be clear though: he deserves every day he has to serve. By his own admission during pre-sentencing evaluations, he has a compulsion that he can’t control. If anyone can’t control themselves from engaging in the evil acts of pedophilia, they should not be running around free to abuse more kids. The Court obviously agrees with my view of it since the Court’s sentence protects our children from Carlos Bell, realistically, forever.”
Greenbelt, MD – United States District Judge Paul W. Grimm sentenced Carlos DeAngelo Bell, 30, of Waldorf, Maryland was sentenced to 105 years in prison, followed by a lifetime period of supervised release for 10 counts of Sexual Exploitation of Minors for the Purpose of Producing Child Pornography. Judge Grimm ordered that, should he complete the term of his imprisonment, Bell must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
The sentence was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Stephen M. Schenning; Special Agent in Charge Andre R. Watson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Baltimore; Charles County State’s Attorney Anthony B. Covington, Sr.; Sheriff Troy D. Berry of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office and Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.
According to the plea agreement, from the period of January 1, 2014 to December 22, 2016, Bell used and coerced minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography. Bell was charged with committing this offense against ten minors. During the relevant period, Bell was employed as an Instructional Assistant in Charles County Public Schools, and a track and field coach at a Charles County Public High School.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “resources” tab on the left of the page.
Acting United States Attorney Stephen M. Schenning thanked HSI, the Charles County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Charles County Sheriff’s Office, and the Maryland State Police. Mr. Schenning also commended Assistant United States Attorneys Timothy F. Hagan and Joseph R. Baldwin of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, who prosecuted this case.
La Plata, MD – Tony Covington, State’s Attorney for Charles County, along with Charles County Sheriff Troy Berry announced on Friday, Jan. 5, that Carlos DeAngelo Bell has pleaded guilty.
Bell, 30 of Waldorf, was facing 206 charges in Charles County ranging from inappropriate sexual contact with minors to distribution of marijuana. During a press conference, Covington reported that Bell went before Charles County Circuit Court Administrative Judge Amy J. Bragunier earlier in the afternoon and pleaded guilty to 27 counts. The maximum penalty to the counts Bell pleaded guilty to total 294 years, however, Covington stated that as part of the agreement Bell would be sentenced to no more that 190 years in prison. In all, Bell pleaded guilty to five counts each of sexual abuse of a minor and attempted transmission of HIV; four counts each of filming child pornography and display of obscene matter to a minor; three counts each of third-degree sexual offense and solicitation of a minor; two counts of second-degree sexual offense, force; and one count of second-degree assault.
Bell, who is a former instructional assistant at Benjamin Stoddard Middle School and former coach for the La Plata High School track team, was charged in July of 2017 after police learned he sexually assaulted several students and used those assaults to create child pornography.
Bell recorded the abuse of the middle school students in a classroom at Stoddard, at his home and in other locations. Police say the time frame of abuse spans about two years from May of 2015 through June of 2017. The ages of the alleged victims at the time the offenses were committed range from 11 years old to 17 years old.
After his arrest, it was revealed that Bell was HIV positive. So far, none of the victims have tested positive for HIV. Bell also previously worked as an aide at J.P. Ryon Elementary School. He was hired in the fall of 2014. Superintendent of Charles County Schools Kimberly Hill said two criminal background checks, with fingerprints, revealed no previous criminal history and Bell was cleared for employment.
Charles County returned three indictments against Bell for a total of 206 charges. Those indictments covered 28 identified alleged victims and 14 unidentified alleged victims.
Bell was set to go on trial starting Monday, Jan. 8.
In November, a federal grand jury indicted Bell in 10 counts of exploitation of minors for the purpose of producing child pornography. According to the indictment, Bell did knowingly employ, use, persuade, entice, and coerce a minor to engage in any sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct, and the visual depiction was produced using materials that had been mailed, shipped, and transported in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce by any means, including by computer during the period of Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 22, 2016.
These 10 counts are in addition to the three indictments against Bell in Charles County.
During the press conference, Hill affirmed that Charles County Public Schools officials “cooperated fully” with the investigation and is now implementing nationally recognized Center for Children training for all staff members in an effort to ensure such incidents never occur within the system again. Hill said she was thankful that the defendant’s plea will prevent a trial which “could have caused further trauma to the victims.”
Contact Joy Shrum at j.shrum@thebaynet.com