Guitar teacher takes 21 years in plea deal for molestation

Bay Area parents unaware of his prior sex abuse conviction

>> Seventeen years after he was convicted of molesting two teen girls during music lessons, a Bay Area guitar teacher has pleaded no contest to molesting three new victims in a deal that will send him to state prison for 21 years.

Rex Bell, 69, pleaded no contest last week to charges of lewd and lascivious acts with minors as part of the deal. He has not yet been formally sentenced, but the prison term was agreed to by both the prosecution and defense.

Bell, a Vallejo resident, was a registered sex offender due to his prior convictions of molesting two 13-year-old girls. Despite the fact that his picture and address were listed on the Megan's Law registry, a website that tracks California sex offenders, Bell advertised himself as a guitar teacher who would give private home lessons all over the Bay Area.

He was arrested last year after a 7-year-old girl informed her parents Bell had kissed and touched her inappropriately during lessons, even though at least one parent was present in their home when the molestation occurred.

After Bell's arrest in October, police found two new victims. None of the victims' parents reported being aware that Bell had been convicted of child molestation in 2006 and sentenced to life in prison; he was freed in 2008 through an appeals court decision that ruled he should have been given a three-year plea deal.

The evidence against Bell wasn't limited to the victims' testimony; one family grew suspicious of him and planted a hidden camera during his next lesson. Police said in court filings that the video shows Bell forcibly kissing the girl “no less than eight” times, and that the only time he did anything with a guitar is when he heard the girl's mother walking into the room and snatched it off of the floor.

Bell's company was called Guitar Confidence. Its website was taken down after his arrest.