Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Darrin Bell has been arrested on suspicion of possessing child sexual abuse videos, including AI-generated material.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said it received an alert from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone was uploading 18 files of child sex abuse videos.
Officers said a total of 134 videos of child sex abuse material was located and linked to the same account, which they said was owned and controlled by Bell, 49.
Police served a search warrant at Bell’s home in California on Wednesday and said they recovered evidence related to the case and computer-generated material.
He was arrested on suspicion of uploading and possessing child sex abuse material. He is currently in custody being held on a $1m bail and appeared in court on Friday.
The sheriff’s office said he is the first person to be charged in the county under an amended California law which makes child sex abuse material generated by artificial intelligence illegal.
According to NBC News, Sky’s US partner network, a woman who identified herself as Bell’s wife told the broadcaster in a brief phone interview to “pray for me and my children” but declined to comment further.
Described by the sheriff’s office as a “well-known cartoonist”, Bell won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning as a freelancer – the first Black artist to win the award.
The Pulitzer website said his “beautiful and daring editorial cartoons” covered “issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration”.
Also known for his series Candorville and Rudy Park, Bell’s work has been syndicated in national newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Washington Post.
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In their report covering his arrest, the Post said it would suspend Candorville from its comics line-up.
According to his website, he started cartooning in 1995.