Oakdale Man Faces Criminal Sexual Conduct Charges

An Oakdale man has been charged with criminal sexual conduct after a 16-year-old Oakdale girl told her mother that he had touched her inappropriately.

Derrick Michael Bell, 38, who has been living in the 1700 block of Hale Avenue North, faces two felony charges: fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct with a 16- to 17-year-old victim with whom he has a significant relationship, and making terroristic threats.

The sexual conduct charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, and the maximum penalty for the terroristic threats charge is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Bell also is charged with misdemeanor domestic assault.

According to the complaint against Bell, filed in Washington County District Court in Stillwater, the girl’s parents brought her to the Oakdale police station last week and told officers that Bell, who has a relationship with the girl’s mother, had repeatedly touched her sexually.

The girl, who was upset and crying during the interview, told police that the inappropriate contact had been going on since she first met Bell a year ago, shortly after he was released from a California prison.

She said she and Bell were often alone in the house while her mother was at work, and that Bell frequently touched her in a sexual manner, at one point telling her that he was “doing it for her” so she would “know how it feels to be touched by someone who loves her,” according to the complaint.

The girl told police that the contact happened “really bad three times,” although sometimes the contact was limited to Bell massaging her feet. She said she didn’t know what to do about the contact because Bell didn’t hurt her and was gentle, though she “knew that it was bad.”

The girl’s mother told police that she had known Bell since they attended elementary school together, and that he had been physically and verbally abusive toward her since they got together last summer.

In one instance, the girl’s mother said, during an argument, Bell cut open two garbage bags with a box cutter, put them on the floor and told her that if she “wanted to be put out of her misery,” he would kill her and put her body in the bags.

On another occasion, the woman told police, Bell hit her on the leg with a hammer. He told her that he would kill her if she tried to leave him, and she was too afraid of Bell to call the police, the complaint says.

Oakdale police arrested Bell June 7 and questioned him about the allegations. He denied arguing with the girl’s mother and said he had never hit her; the officer “observed [Bell] laughing and thinking that everything was a joke” during the interview, the complaint says.

Bell also denied any sexual contact with the 16-year-old. “That one just blew me out of the water,” he told police after being told of the allegations, according to the complaint. “I don’t know nothing about any inappropriate touching.”

Bell remains in the Washington County Jail on a $50,000 bond. He is scheduled to make an initial appearance on the charges June 23.