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A Bay Area guitar teacher and registered sex offender who taught classes in the Tri-Valley was found guilty earlier this month of additional felony crimes involving minors, following an arrest by officers with the San Ramon Police Department last fall.
Rex Lee Bell of Vallejo is set to serve a 22-year prison sentence upon being found guilty of six counts of lewd or lascivious acts against minors by Contra Costa Superior Court Judge David Goldstein on Feb. 7.
As of the Feb. 7 disposition, Bell had served 132 days of incarceration following his arrest by SRPD on Sept. 29 for charges brought forward on Sept. 26. SRPD officials reported that his previous convictions and status as a registered sex offender stemmed from sexual misconduct involving two 13-year-old girls in 2008.
Bell initially faced a total of 20 counts upon his September arrest, including two charges for violating the terms of his existing sex offender status and nine enhancements for previous charges. Two additional victims came forward the following month. With the exception of the six counts on which he was found guilty Feb. 7, Goldstein dismissed the other charges in line with the plea deal.
Prior to his most recent arrest, Bell was the owner and head teacher for Guitar Confidence, offering private in-person classes for students 5 years old and up on the guitar and similar instruments such as the mandolin, banjo and ukulele throughout the Bay Area — including Danville, San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore.
The business website boasted Bell’s decades of experience in the music industry, listing big names such as Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand as among artists he performed or recorded with over the course of more than 40 years in music.
In addition to the prison sentence, other terms of Bell’s plea deal include criminal protective orders for the victims that require him to stay away from them for at least 10 years, providing the results of a mandated HIV/AIDS test to victims and prosecutors, and payment of restitution on all counts, including for psychological harm to the victims.
