CRIME WATCH FOLLOWUP: Child-molesting suspect charged with two felonies

Earlier this week, we reported on the arrest of a man accused of molesting and exposing himself to two children in West Seattle on Sunday. He was accused of approaching the elementary-age victims at 8th/Roxbury as they walked home from a park, This afternoon, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged 39-year-old Anthony M. Bell with two felonies – indecent exposure and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. Bell was already a registered sex offender because he was convicted of third-degree rape in a domestic-violence case in 2008. The photo at right is from the sex-offender registry. Bell has other previous convictions including indecent exposure and assault. Prosecutors asked the judge to keep Bell’s bail set at $250,000 and the judge agreed; he remains in jail tonight and will be arraigned later this month.

Jim November 17, 2021 (5:13 pm)

Most children are molested by people know by their family or a member of their family! I’m happy to hear that someone stopped their car to assist the children and to prevent anything else that should occur. Hopefully this man will be a jail for a long time, since he has proven by his own repeated actions that he’s not safe to children who live in this community!

Echo November 18, 2021 (10:20 am)

He should receive a period of incarceration and an indeterminate sentence of life of community custody – with 20 (or so) community custody conditions, and one of those being that he cannot be present in a location where children frequent.Since he has been convicted of a sex offense before, and both these charges are felonies – hopefully he gets sentenced as a habitual offender and receives an exceptional sentence of incarceration.

Cranky November 17, 2021 (5:37 pm)

Gee, with so many things to do in this life, why in the world do you have to be a complete pervert and create trouble for everyone, including yourself.

Seattlite November 18, 2021 (3:23 pm)

Cranky…Pedophiles cannot be rehabilitated. There is something unfixable with their brain wiring. McNeil Island would be a great place for this pedophile.
- zark00 November 19, 2021 (10:14 am)
  
  @SEATTLITE – that is a common misconception. The truth is actually that, when treated in a prevention program, the recidivism rate of child molesters is about 14%. Without treatment it’s 26%. So we can reduce the recidivism rate, protect more children, with proper treatment. Personally, I don’t really care if they spend the rest of their lives in prison. I’m not very progressive wrt to punishing child molesters, feel like they should get the worst we can give. But being factually accurate, just incarceration is not effective in reducing the likelihood of re-offense. So either give them life sentences with no possibility of parole (unlikely) or at least attempt to treat them to try to protect as many children as possible is prob the more responsible thing to do. Unfortunately long prison terms don’t do anything to deter the crime.

Balderdash November 18, 2021 (3:01 am)

Well, this isn’t someone they knew and was already a sex offender with previous convictions. So he gets to get sidelined from regular society since he can’t seem to stop this sort of behavior.

Sorry, comment time is over.