The NYPD’s Special Victims Unit is investigating allegations that
Stephen Collins, who played the Rev. Eric Camden on the family drama
that ran for 11 seasons, had sexually abused one young girl and exposed
himself to two others, a police source said.
The sexual abuse, however, took place more than 40 years ago — in 1972 —
although it wasn’t reported until 2012, according to a police source.
Sex crime investigators went to Los Angeles a few weeks ago to interview Collins, 67, about the incident, the source said.
“We have an active investigation involving Stephen Collins,” the source said.
No charges have been filed against the actor.
This is not the first time the NYPD has investigated Collins, officials said.
The actor had been the subject of a sex abuse investigation several
years ago, but the statute of limitations on the case ran out, so no
charges were ever filed, the source said.
Collins allegedly admitted to abusing an underage girl — a relative of
his first wife Marjorie Weinman — during a therapy session with his now
ex-wife Faye Grant in 2012, officials said.
Grant recorded the confession, which was later acquired by the gossip website TMZ.com.
In the recording, Collins admitted to forcing the girl, who was 11, to touch his privates.
"There was one moment of touching where her hand ... I put her hand on my penis," he said.
When Grant asked Collins if he had an erection when he exposed himself,
he replied, "No, I mean, no. Partial ... maybe, I think."
Collins also admitted to exposing himself to two more underage girls:
one who lived near him in Los Angeles and another girl from New York who
was between 12 and 13-years-old. It was not immediately revealed when these incidents took place.
Grant released a statement Tuesday acknowledging that recording.
"I woke up today to learn that an extremely private recording I handed
over to the authorities in 2012 per their request in connection with a
criminal investigation was recently disseminated to the press," she
stated. "I had no involvement whatsoever with the release of the tape to
the media."
Meanwhile the immediate effects of the allegations against Collins
appeared to be growing with UP TV not wasting any time with pulling "7th
Heaven" re-runs from its regular TV scheduling.
UP President and CEO Charley Humbard, who personally announced the
show's removal, called the allegations against the actor "disturbing."
"As a top family-friendly network, we are deeply concerned for the
families that are potentially affected by these disturbing allegations
surrounding actor Stephen Collins," stated Humbard. "‘7th Heaven’ has
been a beloved family show and a fan-favorite on our network. We have
made the decision to remove the series from our schedule effective at 5
p.m. ET today."
Collins starred in the CW's family drama "7th Heaven" between 1996 and
2007. Throughout the series, he shared the screen with seven children,
including a teenage Jessica Biel. Barry Watson, Beverley Mitchell, David
Gallagher, Mackenzie Rosman, Lorenzo Brino and Nikolas Brino played the
other six Camden children, with Catherine Hicks starring as their
mother.
The long-running show tackled moral lessons about family matters.
Last month, the cast got together for a Camden reunion and tweeted photos of their family dinner.
Beyond his stint on “7th Heaven,” Collins appeared the 1996 made-for-TV
movie “The Babysitter's Seduction” alongside Keri Russell. He was most
recently seen on-screen in the cancelled NBC dystopian future drama
“Revolution.”
On Saturday, he tweeted that he was about to start filming “Ted 2,”
although he is not listed as a cast member, according to the website
IMDb.com
An attempt to reach a rep for Collins was unsuccessful Tuesday morning.
source:http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/7th-heaven-dad-stephen-collins-admits-sexually-abusing-girl-article-1.1965747
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