Josh Pastner’s Former Friend Ron Bell Charged With Fraud

When Ron Bell and his girlfriend Jennifer Pendley made lewd allegations against his former friend Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner, it didn't make sense to us.

Not that people don't behave badly - of course they do. But the allegations didn’t make much sense and the accounts seemed unlikely.

It’s all been pretty thoroughly discredited but now criminal charges are being brought in Arizona and both have been charged with fraud, that they were “engaged in a plan or scheme ... to allege a false, fraudulent accusation of sexual assault against Josh Pastner with the goal of obtaining an anticipated civil monetary settlement/judgment.”

After the jail phone recording were released, it was pretty clear that Bell had involved Pendley and was the dominant partner.

Now he’s put her in a position where she could end up doing time.

That may not be entirely fair - she may have been just as responsible for whatever happened as he was - but our sense is that Bell is a bad actor. He tried to bring Pastner down and if he used his girlfriend to do it and exposed her to jail time - well, if that’s what happened, that’s unbelievably despicable. We honestly hope it’s not what happened because it’s very ugly if it is.