Former St Patrick Interparish Employee’s Marion County Sex Abuse Case Dropped Two Month Ago

MARION COUNTY. Prosecutors with the Fifth Judicial Circuit dropped the child molestation case against Christopher Chell, a former St. Patrick Interparish Catholic School physical education (P.E.) teacher, two months ago, going unnoticed by any news publications until now. 

In 2024, Chell was hit with over a dozen sex crime charges for sexually abusing students while he served as a P.E. teacher at St. Patrick Interparish Catholic School in Alachua County. State Attorney Brian Kramer’s Office of the Eighth Judicial Circuit dropped nearly all of Chell’s cases, and Judge David Kreider granted him a withheld adjudication for battery and solicitation and sentenced him to five years of probation. 

In March 2025, Chell was booked into the Alachua County Jail on a Marion County child molestation warrant. 

The victim told police that Chell molested him during the car ride home after a flag football game in October 2022. 

The St. Patrick Interparish Catholic School Oct. 2022 Sports Calendar shows they did have a flag football tournament that month. 

Chell was released on a $10,000 bond one week after his arrest following his extradition to the Marion County Jail.

On June 24, 2025, State Attorney Bill Gladson’s Office of the Fifth Judicial Circuit (SAO5) dropped Chell’s Marion County case. 

GnvInfo reached out to SAO5 for comment on why Chell's case was dropped but didn’t receive a response.