Actor Corey Feldman said he went to law enforcement in 1993 and gave them the names of sexual predators, but the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said that wasn’t true. Now the California sheriff’s office is saying differently.
Feldman, 46, has long insisted there are people in Hollywood who are guilty of abusing child actors. He has alleged that actor Jon Grissom and former child talent manager and convicted sex offender Martin Weiss both molested him when he was younger. Feldman said he went to the police in 1993 and nothing happened. Fearful of retaliation, he never went back to the authorities.
Now, the authorities say they have found the tapes from Feldman’s 1993 visit to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
In a statement first released Tuesday night, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Kelly Hoover wrote:
Following the recent inquiries into the Sheriff’s Office interview of Mr. Feldman in 1993, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office conducted an additional review for any stored items remaining from the Michael Jackson investigation. In a container which included the original reports from the investigation, the Sheriff’s Office located some detective working copies of audio recordings made during the investigation. A copy of Mr. Feldman’s interview was located. The recording is being turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Due to the fact that this case involves the alleged sexual abuse of a child, we are unable to comment further and any documentation or evidence related to this case is exempt from release.
Discovery of the tapes comes in the midst of an explosion of sexual predator claims. Ever since film executive Harvey Weinstein was accused of widespread sexual misconduct, the dominos have fallen in quick succession with figures in business, media, Hollywood and politics being called out by victims. Time magazine just named The Silence Breakers, whom the magazine described as “the individuals who set off a national reckoning over the prevalence of sexual harassment,” as its Person of the Year.
Feldman has been trying to raise $10 million to make a movie about the sexual abuse he experienced within the entertainment industry, with the ultimate goal of exposing more abusers. According to Vanity Fair, he alleged that the people he’s up against are “major power players in Hollywood and beyond. They’ve already tried to tarnish his career — even tried to kill him.”
HuffPost has reached out to Feldman and the Los Angeles Police Department, but did not immediately receive comment.