By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – A local pilot will spend the next 7.5 years in prison after pleading guilty to three amended counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, a class 3 felony, and a dangerous crime against children.
On Tuesday, Dec. 3, Richard “Rick” Regis Bell, 42, appeared before Graham County Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Travis L. Ragland and pleaded guilty to the amended “attempted” charges.
According to his LinkedIn biography, Bell was the chief pilot for Ponderosa Aviation from November 2019 – June 2022 and served as its Director of Operations from April 2020 to present. Before heading Ponderosa, his resume lists being the Director of Operations for Sunrise Air Ambulance at the Safford Regional Airport from March 2016 to April 2019.
The class 3 felony is a dangerous crime against children due to the young age of the victims (under 15), and the offense carries a sentencing range including a minimum sentence of 5 years, a presumptive sentence of 10 years, and a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Upon his release from prison, Bell will have to register as a sex offender and will be placed on lifetime sexual offender probation.
According to the plea agreement, probation was guaranteed on the second and third counts and was available on the first count, which was not guaranteed but argued for by Bell’s criminal defense attorney, Joey Hamby, of Phoenix.
Graham County Attorney L. Scott Bennett argued for a sentence of 7.5 years in prison during sentencing, and Judge Ragland acquiesced to that suggestion and imposed it.
The case against Bell began on Jan. 25 when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) out of Douglas received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding the possession of a video of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) by Bell in Safford.
After receiving the cyber tip, HSI began investigating Bell. According to the investigation details, Synchronoss/Verizon initially reported the presence of CSAM in an account on their server and identified Bell’s phone and email as being linked to the upload of three separate CSAM videos, leading to the three counts.
On Dec. 9, Bell was admitted to the Arizona Department of Corrections to begin serving his sentence. He is currently being held at Arizona State Prison Complex—Phoenix, Alhambra, and is scheduled for release on Aug. 2, 2030.
