LAPD responds to shots fired at home owned by Stephen Collins
LOS ANGELES -- Reports of a possible gunshot sent swarms of Los Angeles police and firefighters to television actor Stephen Collins home in Tarzana Tuesday night. The gunshot report turned out to be a false alarm.
Collins, who is under investigation for alleged child molestation, wasn't home at the time. Journalists who were outside the actor's home reporting on the molestation allegations called police after they thought they heard something suspicious.
"It made more of a crackling sound but Mr. Collins has not been home all day, his car is gone, and we verified all that this evening, speaking to him and his attorney," LAPD Capt. Ivan Minsal said.
Collins, a star of the hit TV show "7th Heaven," reportedly confessed to molesting multiple children in a taped therapy session. Those audio tapes were released Tuesday by TMZ, prompting several Hollywood productions to sever ties with Collins.
The actor, who played a hip, compassionate and caring pastor on the show, and his estranged wife, Faye Grant, have been embroiled in an ugly divorce. She disclosed the allegations in court papers, but it is the audio recording of Collins allegedly speaking to Grant and a therapist that is stunning Hollywood.
According to the New York Police Department's Special Victims Unit, a complaint was filed in 2012 accusing Collins of forcing a then-14-year-old girl to commit a lewd act in 1972. LAPD has a similar record.
"We opened an investigation in 2012 but found no victim in L.A. We are looking at that case again and talking with the New York detectives today. So far, no victims in L.A.," an LAPD spokesman said.
Grant describes more about the allegations in divorce documents filed in 2013.
She says, "(He) admitted that he had sexually molested three underage girls," that she "received letters and a phone call from the husband of one of the victims," who "threatened to bring a civil lawsuit against Faye," and wanted the court to shield her from liability if the victim should sue her famous husband.
In the recording, Collins appears to be speaking about the ages of the girls.
Sources in New York say if Collins abused a child in the early 1970s, the case would be beyond the statute of limitations, but Hollywood executives are not waiting for any legal finding. UP TV announced it's pulling "7th Heaven" from its programming schedule, and Collins will no longer be a player in the feature film, "Ted 2."
Collins has also resigned from his position on the National Board of The Screen Actors Guild. As for the divorce that led to the revelations, that heads to a Los Angeles courtroom on Nov. 12.
On Tuesday night, Collins' attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, told TMZ that Grant had threatened to release this tape many times before in an attempt to try and force Collins to pay her millions.
Kaplan says he can't respond yet to the actual content in the tapes.
Grant released the following statement Tuesday: "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. I had no involvement whatsoever with the release of the tape to the media."
