The Stephen Collins Tape; TV Star Target of Child Molestation Probe; Wife Shoots California Mayor Dead
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight. The wildly popular TV star of "Devious Maids," "The Office," "7th Heaven," "Law and Order," "The Fosters," at this hour, the target of a child sex molestation probe. Bombshell tonight. As we go to air, the star`s lawyer fights back, claiming his estranged wife is using the tape to extort money. What`s more important is what the lawyer doesn`t say -- My client does not molest little girls!</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The "7th Heaven" dad is accused of child molestation.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... is the target of an ongoing child molestation investigation.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shocking allegations.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His estranged wife says Collins admitted to molesting three underage girls.</s>GRACE: And live, California suburbs, a local town mayor pronounced dead after being shot multiple times by his wife. Tonight, that wife, Lavette Crespo (ph), walks free. As we go to air, we obtain the chilling 911 call.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 45-year-old mayor, Daniel Crespo (ph), who was shot dead in his home.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... 19-year-old son tried to break it up. But Crespo shot her husband three times to stop the altercation.</s>GRACE: And Utah, a major search under way for a missing 30-year-old woman who vanishes from her upscale condo without shoes, money or phone. Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with me. Bombshell tonight. The wildly popular star of "Devious Maids," "The Office," "7th Heaven," "Law and Order," "The Fosters" at this hour the target of a child sex molestation probe. As we go to air, the star`s lawyer fights back, claiming his client`s estranged wife is using the tape to extort money. But what`s more important is what his lawyer doesn`t say. For instance, My client did not molest little girls? Straight out to Sara Sidner, CNN correspondent joining us from LA. Sara, I was very surprised that Stephen Collins`s lawyer gave a statement about this tape, this tape that apparently divulges multiple little girls that he has molested, and when he does address the tape, instead of saying, This isn`t true, my client didn`t do this, he would never touch a little girl, instead he simply says his estranged wife is basically bleeding him dry, that she`s extorting him for millions of dollars. That`s what this is all about. He never once said, That`s not my client on the tape, he would never do that.</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that`s true. And we`ve reached out to Stephen Collins. We have reached out to his representatives, as well his attorney. That was the attorney Mark Vincent Caplan (ph), who gave the statement. And I want to read it to you so you can hear exactly what it is he told TMZ. Basically, in that statement, he said, Look, over the course of his representation of Stephen in the divorce case, Faye -- and that`s, of course, his estranged wife -- has repeatedly threatened to give this audiotape to the media unless Stephen agreed to pay her millions of dollars more than that to which she was legally entitled. And then he goes on to say because here`s where he addresses the allegations and addresses the videotape. He says, "Though we would like to address the tape itself, the circumstances dictate that we must regrettably refrain from doing so at this time." You do know that the two are in a contentious divorce. But he does never come out and says that, We are saying this did not happen, that this tape is not authenticated. We don`t have any of that from him or his lawyer.</s>GRACE: Right. What -- the point I was originally making -- he does make a comment. He does comment on the tape, the lawyer does, by saying, yes, she`s been threatening to release this for a long time. She`s extorting money. So he does address the tape, but he never says, That`s not my client on the tape, my client would never touch a little girl. Everybody, what you are just seeing is video of "7th Heaven" from CBS TV Distribution. That`s Stephen Collins. And I haven`t met a single person that doesn`t like Stephen Collins. He has been the star of "7th Heaven" -- that lasted almost 10 years or more -- "The Fosters," "The Office." Who doesn`t love "The Office"? It goes on and on. And he always plays father roles, even a preacher, a pastor in one role. I want you to hear a portion of the tape that we keep talking about. Now, remember, he is in a contentious divorce right now with his estranged wife. Apparently, the circumstances surrounding this tape are he is at a therapy session with her before the divorce. They`re trying to, I guess, work through their problems, and this is what she extracts from him. Take a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many times with</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you said that there was another girl. How many girls altogether?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said that there was...</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. There were -- I think -- yes, there were, like, three incidents over about three years.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So -- and then there was the girl across the way at</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>GRACE: CNN has not confirmed the authenticity of that audiotape -- it was obtained by TMZ -- or identified the voices or confirmed if the tape had been edited or doctored in some way. To Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. You know, Marc, last night, I was being very tentative concerned about the authenticity of the tape because you know, Marc, the tape, oral or -- audio or video, you`ve got to authenticate it, prove that`s really him before he`s lambasted, before he loses his job, before he`s prosecuted. You`ve got to be able to prove that`s him confessing to this. And there`s more to the tape that I have heard. But when the lawyer came out today, Marc Klaas, and said, Hey, this tape is all about his estranged wife trying to milk money out of him, you know what? He should probably not have said anything. That`s, like, the camel`s nose in the tent. Once the nose is in, the tail will surely follow. If you`re going to address the tape on behalf of your client, for Pete`s sakes, scream to the rooftops, That`s not my client, he didn`t do that, he would never molest a little girl. Instead, he goes, Oh, it`s the wife. She`s using this against him to get money.</s>MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: You know, even beyond that, Nancy, there are firms in Hollywood that specialize in damage control. If he knew this was coming -- and apparently he did because they say that she`s been shopping this around for a long time -- he should have tried to get out in front of it some way to either deny that that was him on the tape or come up with some other explanation. Instead, it looks like he just girded up and waited for these revelations to come out, and then his lawyer has handled it incredibly badly. This looks terrible for Mr. Collins, and I...</s>GRACE: I mean, Marc, what you expect -- everybody, you`re seeing video from "Law & Order SVU" from NBC Universal TV. There you see Stephen Collins once again starring on TV, usually in a father figure setting, sometimes even a pastor. But you know, Caryn Stark, psychologist, what is missing here is that the lawyer makes a statement and addresses the tape, all right, but he never says, My client would never molest a little girl, this is ridiculous, I demand justice. Instead, they attack the wife. You know, I don`t know. Maybe she is trying to get money. I don`t know anything about that. I do know she says she didn`t leak this tape. I know that. But I`m more concerned -- I`m not concerned about their millions of dollars and who`s going to get the Lamborghini and who`s going to get the Porsche and who`s going to get this house and who`s going to get that condo. I`m concerned about child molestation, Caryn Stark..</s>CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Nancy, that is all that counts here. It doesn`t matter whether this is media control (ph), whether she`s doing the wrong thing as a wronged wife. It doesn`t matter that he was maligned in some way. All that matters is whether this, in fact, is him. And if this is him, that`s despicable and he has a major problem.</s>GRACE: You know, it`s -- it -- unleash the lawyers, Parag Shah, Jason Oshins. Jason, all three of us have tried a lot of cases, more than we can count between the three of us. And here`s the concern. If you`re going to come out as a lawyer and defend your client in a case like this, you know what? Say it`s not your client, deny it, scream, throw a fit. But to just attack the wife for releasing it -- that`s all you got for me?</s>JASON OSHINS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, Nancy, he`s obviously been involved in this divorce case for a very long time, and maybe doesn`t have the skill set...</s>GRACE: Don`t care.</s>OSHINS: Say that again, Nancy?</s>GRACE: Don`t care about the divorce case.</s>OSHINS: Yes, I understand but...</s>GRACE: I don`t care about the money.</s>OSHINS: Well, money certainly at the root of any divorce case really fuels everything, unfortunately. But the reality is, is that if he had nothing to say about the criminal case, he should have said nothing, as you said, about any of it.</s>GRACE: Another thing, Chloe Melas, senior reporter, Hollywoodlife.com, it seems to me that people are handling Stephen Collins with kid gloves. Nobody wants to play the tape in its entirety. Everybody is concerned. You know, even his own lawyer won`t say, This is not my client.</s>CHLOE MELAS, HOLLYWOODLIFE.COM: Even I`m concerned, as I write these articles for Hollywoodlife.com. It`s because you`re dealing with an alleged molestation of children. You have to be really careful. It`s not necessarily just like a big Hollywood divorce scandal. There are many layers, and the fallout has been unimaginable, Nancy. I mean, just the fact that he has resigned from the Screen Actors Guild, the fact that he`s already been fired from his movie, "Ted 2," by Seth McFarland (ph), people are taking this very seriously in Hollywood, and they`re not handling him with kid gloves there.</s>GRACE: Well, I appreciate that Hollywood -- that he has resigned from SAG, Screen Actors Guild. But you know, in the world that I live in, the rest of the world outside of Hollywood, I think more people are concerned about, are these allegations true that he`s been molesting little children, as opposed to him resigning from the Screen Actors Guild. Everybody, you`re seeing video now from "The Office" from NBC TV Distribution. That`s Stephen Collins. The bottom line is, is the tape real? If it is, he has confessed to molesting little girls, forcing their hands on his penis. The New York -- NYPD says that a woman came to them claiming he molested her at a tender age in a Greenwich Village apartment. It goes on and on. The tape we`re talking about -- here`s a portion of it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many times with</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you said that there was another girl. How many girls altogether?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said that there was...</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. There were -- I think -- yes, there were, like, three incidents over about three years.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So -- and then there was the girl across the way at</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>GRACE: CNN has not confirmed the authenticity of the tape. It was obtained by TMZ. CNN has not identified the voices or confirmed that the tape has been edited in some way. For those of you just joining us, TV star of "The Office," "The Fosters," "7th Heaven" allegedly caught on tape admitting to pedophilia and multiple little girl victims. What`s next?