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SPANISH FORK — Just three weeks after an attorney who used to work for the Child Protection Division of the Utah Attorney General's Office was arrested and accused of possessing child pornography, he was arrested again and accused of producing child pornography.
Gary Lee Bell, 66, of Spanish Fork, was arrested Tuesday by Utah County sheriff's deputies for investigation of 12 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and sodomy on a child.
In August, detectives with the Utah County sheriff's Special Victims Unit arrested Bell after they said they found images depicting child pornography on electronic devices owned by Bell. This occurred after detectives received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that child pornography was being downloaded.
Detectives obtained a search warrant and went to Bell's home then, where Bell was arrested and detectives "seized several electronic devices." Bell was booked into jail, where he stayed until he was released on Sept. 6 after a judge allowed his release but ordered him to wear a GPS tracker.
On Tuesday, a sheriff's detective was reviewing the data on a micro SD card belonging to Bell after a forensic technician provided them with the data extracted from the devices seized from Bell in August. While reviewing data, the detective found "a series of nine photos" depicting a male abusing a child, a police booking affidavit alleges.
"Detectives believe these images and video were actually produced by Bell and not just downloaded by him from an external source," Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said in a statement.
In the affidavit, the detective said that they recognized items in the background of the images from photos taken by crime scene technicians when the warrant was served on Aug. 24.
Upon further investigation, the detective discovered a video file that depicted the abuse and more photos of a child, according to the affidavit. "I looked at the EXIF data for both photos, which shows the device the photos were taken on and the creation date of the photos. Both photos were taken on a Samsung cellphone model #SM-A10201, which is the same cellphone seized from Gary during the course of the warrant service."
The affidavit noted that there are "hundreds" of photos of Bell on the extraction and that the video resembled "full nude photos (Bell) had taken of himself."
Bell was rebooked into the Utah County Jail on Tuesday.
"It's more frightening for anybody who has had contact with Mr. Bell to realize that not only has he been downloading material produced by others, we believe he is also producing similar kinds of material — photographs and video — of victims that he has sexually abused," Cannon said.
A judge has ordered that Bell be held without bail.
Police said Bell retired from the Utah Attorney General's Office, while the office said he resigned in 2020 but wouldn't say why. He worked as a prosecutor in the Child Protection Division, but the office said he did not prosecute cases.
Contributing: Matt Rascon
