A former attorney with the Utah Attorney General’s Office, who was arrested last month on charges of sexual exploitation of a minor, is now facing 14 additional charges.

Spanish Fork resident Gary Lee Bell, 66, was arrested by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office late Wednesday and is being held in the Utah County Jail on charges of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, aggravated sodomy on a child and 12 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. A judge has ordered that Bell be held without bail.

Bell was initially arrested and booked into jail on Aug. 24 on five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Detectives with the UCSO Special Victims Unit arrested Bell after allegedly discovering images depicting child pornography on electronic devices owned by him. The office operated on 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 where they arrested Bell and seized several electronic devices,” reads a statement from the UCSO. “Bell was booked into jail, where he stayed until he was released on September 6 after a Judge ordered he be released and that he wear a GPS tracker.”

On Wednesday, Bell was arrested again after detectives found child pornography on his cell phone.

Electronic devices seized from Bell’s home were analyzed, and the lead detective on the case allegedly discovered content on a memory card with images and videos of a child being sexually abused.

According to the UCSO, the detective was able to recognize items in those photos and videos consistent with items found in Bell’s home from photos taken in the home by crime scene technicians when they served the first warrant.

“This Detective was able to confirm that some of the images later discovered were taken from Bell’s phone and items in the photos did, in fact, match items in Bell’s home on the first day he was arrested,” reads a statement from the UCSO. “Detectives believe these images and video were actually produced by Bell and not just downloaded by him from an external source.”

Bell, now retired, served as assistant AG at the Utah Attorney General’s Office. The Utah AG’s Office released the following statement after Bell’s initial arrest last month:

“Mr. Bell deserves his day in court, he is innocent until proven guilty. Our office works diligently to fight the kinds of sexual exploitation Mr. Bell is accused of in the charging docket. We will continue to bring justice for every sexual exploitation case investigated and prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office. Mr. Bell’s prior connection to the Office will in no way prevent the course of justice to prevail.”

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