{"id":46256,"date":"2025-11-12T08:55:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/46256\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T08:55:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:55:44","slug":"texas-sex-offender-richard-leigh-bell-given-no-jail-time-after-plea-deal-with-soros-backed-prosecutor-jose-garza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/46256\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas sex offender Richard Leigh Bell given no jail time after plea deal with Soros backed prosecutor Jose Garza"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0Texas man\u00a0accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a child will avoid prosecution on nine felony counts after striking a plea deal with a George Soros-backed Travis County prosecutor, according to a report.<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s\u00a0ABC affiliate KVUE<\/a>\u00a0reported that Richard Leigh Bell, 37, was indicted on nine felony charges \u2014 including one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, six counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, and two counts of indecency with a child.<\/p>\n

Those charges were dropped as part of a plea deal that allowed Bell to plead guilty to one count of injury to a child, a third-degree felony.<\/p>\n

Under the deal, Bell was sentenced to five years of deferred probation.<\/p>\n

He must register as a\u00a0sex offender\u00a0and is barred from contacting the victim, her family, or any minors, KVUE reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

The plea included no jail time.<\/p>\n

Richard Leigh Bell, 37, was indicted on nine felony charges \u2014 including one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14. KVUE\/YouTube<\/p>\n

Richard Leigh Bell is escorted out of a Travis County courtroom after a hearing. KVUE\/YouTube<\/p>\n

Outside the courtroom on Monday, the victim\u2019s father told KVUE he was blindsided by the decision and said prosecutors Efrain De La Fuente and Lorraine Garcia failed to include him in discussions about the plea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was outraged to find out that this was not only our first and last plea deal, but this was our deal whether I liked it or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The father, who was not named to protect the victim\u2019s identity, said he had expected a prison sentence for Bell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think any parent would expect somebody to rot in jail for doing something like this,\u201d he told KVUE. \u201cAs time went on, I expected a realistic plea deal to be years at least\u2014long enough to serve some time in prison where you belong if you have successfully carried out pedophilic acts.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Texas, deferred adjudication lets defendants avoid a conviction if they complete probation successfully, though any violation can trigger sentencing on the original charge.<\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s probation conditions \u2014 including mandatory sex offender registration and no-contact restrictions \u2014 will remain in place for the entire five-year term.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital has reached out to\u00a0Travis County District Attorney\u00a0Jose Garza\u2019s office and has not received a response.<\/p>\n

Garza, who took office in deep-blue Travis County in 2021 after a campaign backed by progressive billionaire Soros, pledged to \u201creimagine\u201d criminal justice and prosecute police officers. He has defended his record as district attorney, saying he is \u201cdoing exactly what Travis County voters elected him to do \u2014 fixing our broken criminal justice system by standing with survivors, working to end the excessive use of force by police, and prioritizing treatment over incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza. Travis County DA<\/p>\n

Critics have argued that Garza\u2019s office has failed to advocate for victims and has promoted policies that make the city less safe.<\/p>\n

He has also faced scrutiny for aggressively\u00a0prosecuting police officers\u00a0in a city still divided over the council\u2019s 2020 decision to cut police funding.<\/p>\n

That tension came to a head in 2023, when Garza sparked outrage for appearing at the funeral of a fallen police officer \u2014 a move some called \u201ca slap in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00a0Texas man\u00a0accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a child will avoid prosecution on nine felony counts after striking a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[294,10327,26821,26751,4027,26822,27,29,28,734],"class_list":["post-46256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-crime","tag-george-soros","tag-prosecutors","tag-sex-crimes","tag-sex-offenders","tag-sexual-assaults","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}