Mychal Bell of Jena 6 fame will be interviewed tonight on Anderson Cooper 360, speaking after his recent suicide attempt. Although the interview never connects the dots, Bell is awaiting trial on a shoplifting and battery charge from Dec. 24 – might that have something to do with his depression? What wasn’t widely reported by the media back in 2007 was Bell’s criminal history:

Three months prior to that attack, Bell committed two violent crimes while on probation for a battery Christmas Day 2005, according to testimony. Later that same week, he led the Jena Giants to a shutout victory in a football game against the Buckeye Panthers. Bell was adjudicated — the juvenile equivalent to a conviction — of battery Sept. 2 and criminal damage to property Sept. 3, said Cynthia Bradford, LaSalle Parish deputy clerk.

Add this to his plea in the Jena case and I’d assume committing a new crime could have serious consequences. Bell says in the interview that there was a lot of “pressure” from people waiting for Bell to “mess up.” As if it’s not his own fault that he was caught on camera stealing clothes and hitting a security guard in the face.

CNN does it best to try to rehab young Bell, however. Some quotes:

In his CNN interview in Monroe, Bell — who is back in school despite being in pain from his wound and subsequent surgery — didn’t comment on the shoplifting allegations because the case is pending.

He’s also on CNN despite the “pain from his wound.” Another. . .

“Christmas is my favorite time of year, and I just lay in bed; I cried; I tried to shake it off,” he said. “I knew it was nothing but the devil, and I tried to shake it off.”

See above. Bad stuff keeps happening to him at Christmas. And the Hallmark ending to the CNN write-up:

Having survived a suicide attempt, Bell now looks ahead to what he almost lost, his dreams and the pride he’ll have when he achieves them.
“The biggest thing is graduation,” he said. “One of the main things you want to do is walk across that stage and get that diploma. … And everybody will say, ‘he did it.’ “
And then, he hopes, college football.
“A year from now, I want to be in college. … I will be on somebody’s roster, playing college ball,” he said. “I love football Saturdays.”

Oh, and that pesky probable probation violation and trial. That might come before CNN’s happy ending.