LAPD Reserve Held on Stalking Charge

An off-duty LAPD reserve officer was arrested Sunday on charges of impersonating a police officer and stalking a 16-year-old actor from the NBC youth sitcom, “Saved by the Bell.”

Police said Eric Lee Purvis, 25, of La Verne said he wanted to “play a joke” on actor Richard Lee Jackson, who just completed his first season playing the flirtatious Brian Parker on the long-running show, which is broadcast Saturday mornings.

Purvis visited the boy’s Burbank home Sunday wearing an LAPD uniform complete with loaded pistol, trying to question Jackson about an assault that supposedly took place the previous night in Hollywood, police said.

Jackson’s manager, Tony Manziotti, said the actor’s parents became suspicious because Purvis had dropped by their home several times during the weekend when the boy was not home, identifying himself as a police officer. When Purvis again visited the home Sunday, Jackson’s mother called Manziotti, who in turn called police.

“I just sensed something strange about it,” Manziotti said. “I called the Burbank police and I said, ‘I think there’s somebody impersonating an officer questioning my client, and I want a car sent over there immediately.’ ”

Burbank police arrived at the actor’s home while Purvis was still there. At first, he told officers that he was a reserve officer conducting an official investigation, but later admitted he was merely there to “play a joke” on the boy, Burbank police said.

He was arrested after LAPD officials told Burbank police that Purvis was not authorized to carry a gun, use police cars or conduct investigations, said Burbank Det. Carl Costanzo.

Purvis is a technical reserve officer, employed in unarmed station house duties but not authorized to go on patrol, an LAPD spokesman said.

Manziotti said Jackson was unharmed but was “shaken up,” over the incident. He said that neither Jackson nor his brother, Emmy Award-winning child actor Jonathan Jackson of the daytime drama “General Hospital,” knows Purvis.

“No one knows who he is or how he found their house,” Manziotti said. He said the family lives in Burbank part time while the children tape their television shows, but their permanent residence is in Washington state.

The district attorney’s office brought felony charges against Purvis of stalking, impersonating an officer and unlawful use of a police car, which he allegedly took from the LAPD Newton Station. He also faces two misdemeanor weapons charges, including one for allegedly having a loaded automatic handgun in the car.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to at least four years in state prison. He was being held at Burbank City Jail in lieu of $1-million bail and was scheduled to be arraigned today, Costanzo said.