Celebrities and the Law

Why did his wife keep this information for so long without going public?

“Stephen and I were married 27 years,” she said in court filing later obtained by TMZ. “We were separated on February 2, 2012. On January 19, 2012, I learned for the first time that Stephen had been living a secret life. … Stephen’s therapist subsequently disclosed to me that Stephen has narcissistic personality disorder with sociopathic tendencies.”

I'm not excusing what the guy did under any circumstances, but why in the world would a therapist disclose to a third party about the abuse? Isn't there some sort of privilege that applies here? I've also heard that the recordings come from a therapy session. I'd like to think that what I say in a therapy session remains private.

I believe the therapist has an obligation to report any criminal activity to the police, particularly if they have hard information like names or dates that the police might actually be able to use. But the therapist pretty much shouldn't be talking to his wife at all, let alone discussing his diagnosis.

My understanding was he was having issues with his wife/guilt about his actions, and confessed the truth to her in the RL, but then was all let's work it out in therapy, together, and she agreed, but taped the sessions because it's legal to do so in California, obviously to help with any future divorce proceeding. I assume the doctor disclosed after the patient waived privilege to work things out with his wife.

For whatever reason (the "therapy" I guess, and I'd also guess the financial security she/the kids would lose by destroying his career at that point while he was in the middle of 7th Heaven's long run) she didn't go public with it then.

Re: the therapist - mandatory reporting.

I do feel bad for all the people who are getting residuals from 7th Heaven reruns. It has been removed from the air, which makes sense, but he's not the only person getting paid from that show.

That's a fair point, bookworm. He's hurting innocent people left, right, and centre.

Terrible situation. And I know you can't judge a person by the character(s) they play, but I never thought I'd be hearing this kind of thing about the man who played Reverend Camden. Which is stupid and naive of me, I know. But the only other option is to suspect everyone of everything and that's not good for a person either.

Bill Cosby kind of broke me, so now I'm not surprised any more by the depravity of my heroes. Except for Mr. Rogers. That man was a saint.

PLEASE LET US KEEP MR ROGERS. I never watched 7th Heaven, so this actor doesn't mean anything to me, but yeah, I was really saddened by Bill Cosby too.

I'm confused. I'm reading it as he confessed to the wife and she got the tapes in 2012 and went to the police. They closed an investigation on him then. I'm not sure where the she had the tapes for 20 years and didn't do anything is coming from? I could be misreading though.

It also appears she got a letter years ago and made a REALLY disgusting joke when she was pregnant. I'm sure he waved away the letter by saying that he was a person in the spotlight for playing a saintly character and there are crazy people out there...as for the joke, tbh I'd say if I was her I'd have run from the spot, but I've never been in that situation.

Ugh. How awful for those kids. He is also being cut from an upcoming episode of Scandal (Shonda Rhimes has used him on a couple of her shows, but I think that's over now) and he is also cut from Ted 2. Good.

I'm confused. Apparently the first ex-wife had a female relative come to her as an adult and say that she (the female relative) was molested by him when she was a child. The first ex-wife went to the police, the police investigated, but found that the statute of limitations had expired. He was married to the second ex-wife for 25 years, right? So how in the world did she not find out that there was a police investigation into her husband? Somehow I find it hard to believe that she was married to the guy for 25 years and just found out two years ago that he molested kids. So how could this have been hidden from the second ex-wife if there was a police investigation? He has a daughter with the second ex-wife. I assume that if they suspected him of molesting children, they would have talked to the second ex-wife.

Something seems hinky to me. I can't help but think that the second ex-wife is trying to get more money in the divorce agreement, and then I feel sick for even thinking that, because that is reprehensible.

Kiran wrote:I'm confused. I'm reading it as he confessed to the wife and she got the tapes in 2012 and went to the police. They closed an investigation on him then. I'm not sure where the she had the tapes for 20 years and didn't do anything is coming from? I could be misreading though.

I think the events occurred 20-40 years ago and they discussed them in therapy 2 years ago. One of the articles floating around misstated it as the tapes being around for 20 years.

I am really grossed out by this because I liked that guy. I even liked the turn he did on the sincerely terrible final season of Sisters. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

It's my understanding from the Donald. Sterling case that this kind of taping might be illegal in California and might not be admissible evidence. Maybe that's why the 2012 police case went nowhere.

His wife played the leader of the resistance in the V miniseries.

Apparently according to her legal advice there is an exception on recording an individual without their consent when it comes to crimes or crimes against minors. No idea if that is true or not but it is a much different situation than Donald Sterling who was just being an racist asshat not committing a crime. I do wonder about the confidentiality of it being a therapy session but I would think the therapist was a mandatory reporter.

The first ex-wife went to the police, the police investigated, but found that the statute of limitations had expired.

Did she where did you read that?

The only sources I've seen are referencing a single police investigation into the 2012 tapes that Grant handed over pretty much as soon as it happened, and it was the LAPD who closed the case because they could not find/verify a victim (it was relative of a neighbor 20 years ago so that's not surprising).

It doesn't sound like she morally abdicated anything, he told her, she had the therapy session attempting to process it, and gather some evidence, and then went to the cops.

Of course it's possible she suspected before he confessed, but so far I haven't read anything that makes me think she knew for sure before 2012.

I don't remember where I saw it now (I've read about 92,000 articles on this, it feels like) but if I can find it again, I will post.

I'm not doubting you! I was just genuinely curious because I haven't heard anything about the first wife, barring that it was her relative that was molested.

The 20-40 year old information is from a link posted in this thread:

Foremost among those details is that the tapes themselves are allegedly between 20 and 40 years old, according to Collins’ lawyer, and his estranged wife, Faye Grant, has been threatening to use them for at least two years, only to do so on the eve of the divorce.

Since that is the only place I have seen it and it's hardly that reputable, I imagine they just got the story wrong.

I think bad writing/editing is probably why I think there was a police investigation years ago. I can't find that link that I read that blixie was asking about. All I can see now is that the female relative of the first ex-wife went to the police in 2012 and the statute of limitations had expired in that particular case. I don't know if that police investigation is the one that the police said they investigated and could not verify the victim. Perhaps I read it wrong initially.

I am still confused as to why the second ex-wife released the tape to TMZ. I'm not sure what she's trying to gain from this, if anything. It appears the police investigated and either the statue of limitations had expired and/or they couldn't verify the victim. That is what one of the links upthread states, anyway.

I read that second ex-wife is claiming that she didn't release the tapes. It's possible she didn't--they've been with the police for a couple of years. A number of people probably had access.

I haven't heard the tapes or seen a transcript, but I that's all the police had I can see why the investigation went nowhere since it sounds like he didn't give anything that would have identified the victims.

Maybe the motive of getting them on TMZ was to get victims to come forward.

Do I even want to know about Bill Cosby?

inversed wrote:Do I even want to know about Bill Cosby?

No.

You should though mainly because it is atrocious how despite consistent allegations it's swept away. This is a good summary: There is a new biography that omits everything relating to it.

From the article: "our collective attention span for rape allegations is short, but our appetite for new music and movies is strong." Ouch, true.