Washington Post cartoonist Darrin Bell arrested for child pornography

Darrin Bell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist whose work appears in the Washington Post and other newspapers across the U.S., has been arrested for possessing child pornography, according to law enforcement in California.

Sgt. Amar Gandhi, of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, said the investigation began after someone uploaded 18 files containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to an online service. Further investigation revealed a total of 134 videos containing CSAM.

A search warrant was executed at Bell’s home on Wednesday after it was determined that he owned and controlled the account, Sgt. Gandhi said. Bell was taken into custody and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail for CSAM possession.

Gandhi said this is the first case in Sacramento County involving the possession of AI-generated child pornography. The law making this a criminal offense took effect on January 1.

Bell, who is 49, is being held on $1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.

Bell is best known for comic strips Candorville and Rudy Park, both of which have appeared in the Washington Post and other newspapers across the U.S. Both comics still appear on the newspaper’s website and were updated as recently as Thursday morning.

In 2023, Bell also published a graphic memoir called “The Talk,” which reflects on the impact of racism, including police brutality against people of color. The Guardian newspaper described it as one of the best graphic novels of the year.

In 2019, Bell became the first African American journalist to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. The committee praised Bell for taking on “issues affecting disenfranchised communities” and “calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration.”

“I want [readers] to take away that we need to be more respectful of human dignity,” Bell told ABC News after getting the award. “That’s the common thread I try to weave through every cartoon that I draw — whether it’s about police brutality or immigrants being separated from their children, or whether it’s about Donald Trump. It’s a big moment of validation.”