James Marsden, Alan Thicke, Boy Meets World stars, and several other different distinguished entertainers wrote letters of help for convicted little one molester Brian Peck when the previous Nickelodeon dialogue coach was set to be sentenced for sexually abusing 15-year-old Drake Bell.
Within the forthcoming docuseries, Quiet on Set: The Darkish Facet of Youngsters TV, Bell reveals that he was the nameless teenage sufferer whose testimony led to the 2003 arrest of Peck, whom the actor met whereas engaged on The Amanda Present. The Investigation Discovery sequence (premiering Sunday) petitioned for court docket paperwork from the case to be launched, and located a number of letters of help by now-prominent entertainers who vouched for Peck’s character on the time. Peck — no relation to Bell’s Drake & Josh costar Josh Peck — pled no contest to 2 counts of kid sexual abuse, and was sentenced to 16 months in jail in 2004 and registered as a intercourse offender.
Among the many letter writers have been Marsden, Taran Killam, Rising Pains stars Thicke and Joanna Kerns, Twin Peaks actress Kimmy Robertson, Boy Meets World actors Will Friedle and Rider Robust, American Horror Story actor Ron Melendez, and Amanda Present crewmembers Wealthy and Beth Correll.
Reps for Marsden, Killam, Robertson, Kerns, Friedle, Robust, Melendez, and Wealthy Correll didn’t instantly reply to EW’s request for remark. Beth Correll couldn’t be reached for remark.
James Marsden; Alan Thicke.
Jon Kopaloff/Getty;Phillip Chin/WireImage
The docuseries exhibits an excerpt from Marsden’s letter, which says “I guarantee you, what Brian has been by within the final 12 months is the struggling of 100 males.” The doc famous that Marsden had recognized Peck because the Jury Responsibility star was a younger teenager.
The letter from future Saturday Night time Stay solid member Killam, who additionally stared on The Amanda Present, included the sentence, “I’ve seen the impacts this conditions has had on Brian and I do know for a incontrovertible fact that he regrets any errors made.”
In his letter, Thicke, who died in 2016, insisted Peck “was by no means inappropriate in any means.”
In the meantime, Robertson wrote, “I consider with all my coronary heart that Brian was pressured and pushed past perception earlier than he caved in.”
Wealthy Correll’s letter stated, “It could be my pleasure to…work with him once more.” As soon as Peck was launched from jail, the Corrells did certainly work with him once more, this time on Disney Channel’s The Suite Life With Zack and Cody. Nevertheless, in line with the doc, the Corrells acknowledged that “that they had no enter or involvement” in Peck’s casting, and stated after they requested him concerning the case, “Mr. Peck merely replied that ‘the issue had been resolved.'”
Quiet on Set makes a degree to notice that it’s unknown what any of the letter writers have been advised about Peck’s state of affairs, and it is completely potential paperwork could have been written in good religion on account of misinformation concerning the case.
Kerns wrote in her letter, “I can solely consider that there should have been some excessive state of affairs or temptation exerted upon him to affect his actions.” She supplied a follow-up assertion that made it into the docuseries that stated: “I’ve now discovered that my letter of help was based mostly on full misinformation. Understanding what I do know now, I by no means would have written the letter.”
Drake Bell in 2001.
Gary Livingston/Getty
Excerpts weren’t proven from the opposite letters. Friedle and Rider mentioned remorse over their friendship with Peck on a current episode of Pod Meets World. “He didn’t say that nothing had occurred,” Rider stated. “So by the point we heard about this case and knew something about it, it was at all times within the context of, ‘I did this factor, I’m responsible. I’m going to take no matter punishment the federal government determines, however I’m a sufferer of jailbait. There was this scorching man, I simply did this factor and he’s underage.’ And we purchased that storyline. I by no means heard concerning the different issues as a result of, again then, you couldn’t Google to search out out what folks have been being charged with. So on reflection,” Rider urged, “he was making a plea deal and admitting one factor, which is all he admitted to us, but it surely seems to be like he was being charged with a sequence of crimes, which we didn’t know.”
“There’s an precise sufferer right here, and he turned us in opposition to the sufferer to the place now we’re on his group,” Friedle stated. “That’s the factor the place, to me, I look again at that as my ever-loving disgrace for this complete [thing]. Getting taken in by any individual who’s a very good actor and a manipulator, I might chalk that as much as being younger and that’s the best way it’s. It’s terrible. I’m going to make use of that for my progress as a human being, however when there’s an precise sufferer concerned and now I’m on the abuser’s facet, that’s the factor I can’t recover from and haven’t been in a position to recover from.”
Quiet on Set: The Darkish Facet of Youngsters TV airs March 17 and 18 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ID.
For those who or somebody you already know has been a sufferer of sexual abuse, textual content “STRENGTH” to the Disaster Textual content Line at 741-741 to be linked to a licensed disaster counselor.
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