Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist arrested on child pornography charges
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Darrin Bell is the first Californian to be charged for possession of AI-generated CSAM since it became state law on January 1. Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Darrin Lawrence Bell is facing felony child pornography charges over a trove of graphic videos — some of them AI-generated — that detectives say the 49-year-old uploaded to an online account.
Bell, a Northern California resident, was arrested Wednesday and is being held in the Sacramento County Main Jail on $1 million bail, according to booking records. Bell won a Pulitzer in 2019 for editorial cartooning, the first African-American to do so.
He also received the Berryman Award for Editorial Cartooning (2016), the RFK Award for Editorial Cartooning (2015), and UC Berkeley’s Daily Californian Alumni of the Year Award (2015). Bell, who does not yet have an attorney listed in charging documents and was unable to be reached for comment, is due to appear in court on Friday at 3 p.m. local time.
