Stephen Collins Probed For Child Molestation

Stephen Collins and his "7th Heaven" co-star Catherine Hicks.
Stephen Collins and his “7th Heaven” co-star Catherine Hicks.

LOS ANGELES—Actor Stephen Collins, 67, best known for his role on the television series “7th Heaven” is being investigated by the New York Police Department to confessing to his wife, actress Faye Grant of child molestation.

TMZ first broke the news of the story, of Collins’ confessing on tape to his estranged wife during a taped therapy session in 2012 of his involvement of sexual contact with multiple under aged girls, including exposing himself.

The NYPD is now conducting a criminal investigation on Collins. TMZ reported one alleged victim in the case is a relative of the actor’s first wife. According to reports, Collins is believed to have engaged in inappropriate behavior with at least three girls. In one case, the actor asked the victim to touch his genitals.

His first wife was Marjorie Weinman who the actor remained married to for eight years from 1970-1978. Collins married Grant back in 1985 and they have a daughter, Kate who was born in 1989. He starred as Reverend Eric Camden on “7th Heaven” from 1996-2007.  He recently appeared on the NBC series “Revolution.” Since the allegations surfaced, Collins resigned from his seat on the national board for the Screen Actors Guild and re-runs of the series “7th Heaven” have been pulled from the UPtv channel.

The network released the following statement on behalf of president and CEO Charley Humbard, “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. 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 PM ET today (Tuesday, October 7th). We will continue to monitor the situation and listen carefully to our viewers.

Reports have surfaced that Grant had been attempting to leak the tape for financial gain, but the actress issued a statement saying: “I had no involvement whatsoever with the release of the tape to the media.”

Reports on October 7 noted that Collins had committed suicide, but there is no validity to those claims as the actor’s home was visited by Los Angeles police officers. The actor was not home at the time. They confirmed the actor was safe. “Baywatch” actress Donna D’Errico had tweeted, “All I know is what all my neighbors told me. Hoping it’s a false alarm. It’s a zoo out here. I’m going to bed.”

She followed up that tweet with the following: “I just tweeted out what I was being told by my neighbor who were on scene. I apologize for tweeting what I’d heard before confirming it.”

The leak of the audio from the tape has led to the actor being dropped from an upcoming role in the movie “Ted 2,” as well as any possibility of him returning on the ABC hit “Scandal.”