Actor Wants ‘Truth to Come Out’ in L.A. Porno Case
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor Jeffrey Jones, who played a principal in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and a Puritan in “The Crucible,” broke his silence on Thursday on the child pornography charges he faces, saying he wants “the truth to come out.”
Appearing with his lawyer outside a Los Angeles courthouse after his arraignment was postponed to Jan. 9, Jones said he has cooperated with the police department and prosecutors “from the beginning.”
Jones, 55, who remains free on $20,000 bail, was charged last Friday with hiring a 14-year-old boy to take sexually explicit photos. He faces up to three years in prison and would have to register for life as a sex offender if convicted on a felony charge of using a minor for sex acts and a misdemeanor count of possessing child pornography.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said the charges do not involve any sex act being performed or any video or film being taken.
“All I want is for the truth to come out and for this matter to be resolved as quickly as possible,” the actor, dressed in a suit and tie, told reporters in brief remarks outside the courthouse.
Jones’ lawyer, Jeffrey Brodey, said his client was “pleased that the matter finally has come to court.”
“After meeting with the prosecution and the police department, it’s our belief and hope that this matter will be very quickly resolved,” the attorney said.
Jones’ most notable film roles include the truant-hunting principal out to catch Matthew Broderick in the 1986 teen comedy “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and the malignant Puritan landowner Thomas Putnam in the 1996 film adaptation of Arthur Miller’s witch hunt drama “The Crucible,” which starred Winona Ryder. He also was the music-loving Austrian emperor in the Oscar-winning film “Amadeus.”
The case against Jones stems from a search police conducted at his home last year under the same warrant issued for a search the same day of comic actor Paul Reubens’ home. Reubens, best known as children’s TV character Pee-wee Herman, was charged separately on Friday with a misdemeanor count of possessing child pornography.
A spokesman for Reubens, whose career was derailed in 1991 after he was arrested for allegedly masturbating in an adult movie theater, said the investigations grew out of allegations lodged by a teenager against the two performers. Reubens’ lawyer said her client was innocent.
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