Law&Crime Sidebar - Timothy Busfield Child Sex Crimes Case Slammed by Actress Wife

Episode Date: April 7, 2026

Actress Melissa Gilbert is publicly defending her husband, West Wing actor Timothy Busfield, who has been indicted on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child/minor. Gilbert says she is "100% confident he will be exonerated" and that she is "neither naive nor am I complicit" regarding past accusations against her husband. Law & Crime's Jesse Weber breaks down the latest details of the case.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

They're all lies and I did not do anything to those little boys. And I'm going to fight it. As actor and director Timothy Busfield is accused of child sex crimes out New Mexico, in a stunning move. His wife, actress Melissa Gilbert, has sat down for an interview. She talked about the allegation. She was very clear in the way that she feels. And I will tell you right now, you don't see this every day.

A spouse talking in the middle of a criminal case. Why did she do it? Is there a legal risk? What is the value of this? What does this say about the charges that Busfield faces? Let's get into it. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Also, I got to say, thank you so much for following this case with us. And the reason we're able to bring you this story is because of the incredible support that we get from our partner, Morgan and Morgan. Who's Morgan and Morgan? America's largest injury law firm. For over 35 years, they have been fighting for the people. They've recovered more than 30. billion dollars for their clients. And look, the proof is in the track record. With more than a thousand lawyers across 100 offices nationwide, hiring Morgan Morgan is like hiring an army to go into battle for you, a team that will fight hard to get their clients the compensation they deserve. Look, not all law firms are the same. You hire the wrong one. You may be beat before you even start. So if you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan and their fee is free unless you win. For more information, you can go to for the people.com slash LC sidebar. Click the link below or scan the QR code on

Let me just say this off the top. You do not see this. Okay, you do not see a criminal defendant, let alone their spouse, speaking out like this during a criminal case before it's been resolved. You don't see it. It's very rare. We're going to talk about why in a minute there is a risk associated with doing it. But that is exactly what just happened.

Actress Melissa Gilbert, Little House on the Prairie, went on ABC's Good Morning America, alongside Busfield's lawyer, Larry Stein, and talked to. about her husband. Defended her husband, West Wing actor Timothy Busfield, who as we know, has been indicted on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child, a minor out in New Mexico, for alleged inappropriate contact involving two boys during the production of the Fox Warner Brothers show, The Cleaning Lady, which he served as a director. Now, Busfield was ordered released by a New Mexico judge. He's awaiting trial. But to give you an idea about what we're talking about, criminal sexual contact of a minor under New Mexico law is the unlawful and intentional touch

of or applying force to the intimate parts of a minor or the unlawful and intentional causing of a minor to touch one's intimate parts for the purposes of this section intimate parts means and it goes into a description about what the private areas could be so gilbert does this interview and she says a lot she says quote this has been the most traumatizing experience of our lives our life as we knew it is done we are grieving what we had all of our plans all of our dreams all of our ideas all of our projects. For Tim, it's done. He's canceled. Even if he's exonerated, he will always be that guy, the last person in the world who would hurt a child. And I want you to keep that part in mind because we'll talk about it later. It might go into the motivations for why she did this interview.

But she added how she is, quote, 100% confident he will be exonerated. Now, this part was really interesting because the conversation turned to Busfield's prior accusations. This has come up a lot in reporting. For example, there was this accusation back in the 90s from a 17-year-old who accused him of sexual assault on the set of Little Big League. 2012, 28-year-old woman accused him of groping her at a movie theater. Now, to be clear, there were no criminal charges that were ever filed in connection with either of these alleged episodes. But there was also the reporting recently of how the father of a 16-year-old girl came forward, accusing Busfield of sexually assaulting his daughter several years ago, and then at the time, Busfield begged them not to go to the police

if he promised to go to therapy. So Gilbert says during this interview, quote, I need to make something abundantly clear. These allegations have been out in the ether for a very long time. When Tim and I got together, the internet existed. I didn't go into my relationship blind. I'm neither naive, nor am I complicit. I talked to him about it. I asked him questions about it. I heard his side of the story, which nobody has ever heard, which is the truth. And when the time is right, And that is not now. Tim will tell the truth of all of these past allegations when he needs to. We'll talk about when that might be.

I know this man in my bones. No one knows him better than I do. I know literally everything about him. He is nothing, if not completely honest with me. Our marriage has, you know, we've had a lot of ups and downs. We've been through struggles. We've had our own issues to deal with. And we've worked through everything.

I trust him with my children's lives, with my grandchildren's lives, my nieces and nephews. He is an honorable, caring, generous human being. Now, before I analyze and dive into Gilbert speaking out, and I'm going to bring on David Ring in a little bit, a claimed attorney in this space to talk about it, I want to put this a little bit more into context, her interview. So one of the things that happened was I actually interviewed Busfield Civil Attorney, Larry Stein,

who was with Melissa Gilbert in that GMA interview. I interviewed him on my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live last night. Take a look. You don't usually see criminal defendants or their spouses speaking out during the middle, in the middle of a criminal case. What was the strategy here? Why did she want to do this? And I've been doing this for four decades for celebrities, and I've never done an interview. That was the first interview I've ever agreed to. And the reason why is because the parents, the detective, the assistant district attorney, and the district attorney have

been absolutely complicit in a false story being prepared here. And the media, unfortunately, has gone along with it. They focused, as you said, on 30-year-old allegations regarding women, which have absolutely nothing to do with an allegation regarding progressive boys. And so we felt that in order to get our side of the story out, it was necessary for us to do these sorts of interviews. So I want to put this into context. Originally, these twin boys, these accusers that are part of the current charges, they were apparently interviewed by authorities in November of 2024 when police were called to the University of New Mexico Hospital. One of the boys claimed that Busfield touched his private areas. According to therapist

notes, this is someone who has been diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety, allegedly as a result of what happened to him. In fact, according to a 13-page arrest warrant, The boy had, quote, nightmares about the director touching him and waking up scared. The allegation is that the boys were groomed by Busfield, who they apparently called Uncle Tim, that he would allegedly tickle them. So you're talking seven or eight years old. But that they denied at first anything sexual happened. And there was even an audio tape that was released where the child accuser is seemingly denying Busfield touching him in this interview with authorities.

This was audio that was obtained by the New York Post and TMZ. It was submitted by Busfield's attorneys in a court filing. And to be clear, and I'll talk about this as well with David, and there's two ways to look at this, right? On one hand, you could say, oh, my gosh, this really strikes at the credibility of the accusers. It strikes at the credibility of the parents who we'll talk about. Now, the other hand is, the other way of looking at it, and I actually interviewed Stein about this too, and I'm going to talk about it with David Ring.

You and I both know that in a lot of alleged sexual assault cases or sexual abuse cases, whether it's children, whether it's adults, man, woman. These alleged victims can first deny the abuse, not mention it, not report it, and then come forward years later, days later, months later, it all depends. There's a lot of complicating factors. But even so, this has to be considered along with what I'm about to get into. Because since at the time, there was no further evidence of sexual contact, the investigation didn't go anywhere until October of 2025. The boy's mother then file a report against Busfield with CPS, Child Protective Services. This is when one of the boys claims that

Busfield did touch his privates over his clothes and was, quote, afraid to tell anyone because Tim was the director and he feared Tim would get mad at him. So after conducting these interviews and reportedly talking to some members of the cleaning lady production crew, an investigator secured an arrest warrant. In the accompanying warrant in this case, Busfield even allegedly admitted to police that it was, quote, highly likely that he had some sort of physical contact with the children. Though he characterized the interactions as playful, like picking them up and tickling them. And the warrant also includes a broader observation from law enforcement stating, according to deadline, pedophiles often infiltrate families under a trusted role like Timothy, who as a producer, exploited the hectic film sets.

Now, according to deadline, both parents of the boys and other alleged victims of Busfield over the years are on the prosecution's witness list. Now, Stein, again, Busfield's lawyer who was also on GMA, said, in this case, the boys are victims of the parents, not victims of Tim. The parents are criminals. One served more than three years in jail and lost their license to practice law for defrauding 1,500 people of $6 million and the other for writing bad checks and stealing cars. And where does that come from? Well, in one of Busfield's pretrial filings from his attorneys, there was the argument that he should be released because he claimed the parents are fraudsters, that they're staged parents, Angela LaSalle and Ronald Rodas, citing even how LaSalle allegedly was heard saying she wanted to get, quote, revenge. on Busfield, potentially because the boys were replaced by another child actor in an upcoming season of the show. Quote, the state offers no reliable proof, only allegations advanced by witnesses with documented histories of fraud and financial exploitation, contradicted by a comprehensive studio investigation and refuted by witnesses and objective risk assessments. That's something Stein told me on my show last night, that there was an investigation where they

looked into, they actually spoke to different members of that production, too. They also said in this filing, the prosecution's case rests almost entirely on the accounts of the two stage parents and they are not neutral observers. Their allegations emerged only after the loss of the twins' role and only after consultation with civil counsel, creating an obvious financial and retaliatory motive. That motive must be evaluated against the couple's well-documented history of fraud and dishonesty. So Busfield accuses Rodas, essentially, that there's a change of story when money's on the table, that he's doing this for financial gains, saying, quote, Rodis is a former attorney who was convicted of federal conspiracy and wire fraud and was later

disbarred following that prosecution for a multi-million dollar scheme in which he used his law license that deceive vulnerable victims for profit, citing how Rodas previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud when he reportedly defrauded more than 1,500 homeowners of approximately $6 million. And that is again, according to the filing that was obtained by outlets like people. Bossfield also cited a member of the cleaning lady crew who apparently called Rodas pushy and manipulative and that he would frequently encourage and tell the children to hug people on set, including Mr. Busfield? What about the boy's mother? So Busfield says she, quote, has had multiple civil judgments entered against her for fraudulent and dishonest behavior,

claiming she was sued for various claims, including fraud, conversion, and fraudulent transfer, including illegally repossessing a car and writing bad checks to casinos. And quote, the fact of the matter is that the parents driving the allegations against Mr. Busfield have an extraordinarily checkered pass that casts enormous doubt on the truthfulness of their statements. Timeline does not indicate an investigation naturally unfolding, but instead an express effort to seek revenge against Mr. Busfield after losing the lucrative opportunity that came with their children's acting on the cleaning lady. Now, I have to mention something, too, that Warner Brothers, who was a partner in this production also had an independent outside investigation that was conducted and found, quote, no corroborating evidence of inappropriate conduct by Busfield on this production. And in Busfield's opposition filing, he claims that the investigation, quote, found not only that allegations against Mr. Busfield were unfounded, but also that Angela Sal, after hearing that her children might not be returning for a fourth season, stated to the show's lead actor that she would, quote, get her revenge against Tim Busfield. And when I spoke to Stein last night, I believe he said there were actually two investigations.

But there's more. In the filing, his legal team also argued that Busfield passed a polygraph examination when asked about. the allegations. And I believe polygraphs are admissible under New Mexico law. They also claim that the findings of a psychosexual evaluation concluded that Busfield, quote, does not appear to have a sexual attraction to prepubescent or adolescent males or females. Now, with all that in mind, Gilbert is now speaking out. And this is a 180 because when her husband initially turned himself into authorities, her spokesperson had released the following statement at the time on her behalf. Melissa Gilbert is not making public statements at this time. And he purported statements circulating online, including AI-generated deep fakes of her,

breaking her silence, should not be treated as coming from her. She is honoring the request of Tim's lawyers not to speak publicly while the legal process unfolds. During this period, her focus is on supporting and caring for their very large family as they navigate this moment. Melissa stands with and supports her husband and will address the public at an appropriate time. we ask that their privacy be respected. Well, now appears to be that appropriate time because she's speaking out, right? So let's talk about it. So I want to bring on civil trial attorney David Ring. Now, David represents survivors of sexual abuse. He knows about these kinds of cases. David,

thank you for taking the time to come on to talk about this. I mentioned this at the top. I'll mention it to you. You don't always see either a criminal defendant or their spouse doing an interview and making statements in the middle of not only a criminal investigation, a criminal case, an active criminal case where there's an indictment. A, explain to our audience why that's the case, what the risks are, and B, why do you think she did it? Very interesting. And you're absolutely right, Jesse. It's, it doesn't happen very often, but this is a high profile case. And the strategy, clearly, for Timothy Buzzfield and his wife, Melissa Gilbert, is to go national, is to go public and to start, you know, their theme that this is what they're claiming is that this is made up. These are false allegations.

Timothy Busfield would never do anything like this. And so they're really going to go on the PR blitz and try to convince the public that this didn't happen well before the criminal trial even happens. What is the risk of it that anything she say could be used against her husband or if she's called as a witness, anything she says can be used to impeach her credibility? Absolutely. Anytime you go public and give an interview, those statements can be used in court. So Timothy Busfield, when right around the time he was being arrested, made a public statement about this. That can be used against him in court if he says something that turns out to be helpful to the prosecution. Same with Melissa Gilbert. You know, if she says something that the prosecution thinks helps their case,

they can play that video and use it to impeach her during the trial. Was there anything that she said in your view and your mind that was legally problematic? I don't think so. Look, she had her lawyer sitting right beside her. Obviously, they had prepared for this interview. She said all the things that my husband wouldn't do this. I know him incredibly well. I will say this, though. The one thing that did catch me, that could be problematic, is that she says that Timothy Busfield, before they got married, that he told her everything about these past allegations. today's like, did he really? Because some of these victims have come forward only recently. They were not news back in 2012 or 13 when they got married. Did he tell her about those victims as well? Well, and to be clear, it's not like when they got married, he told her about the allegations

regarding these twin boys because that hadn't allegedly happened yet. And I guess the question becomes, it seems, even if you look at the prosecution's witness list, they are planning a very expansive case where it's not just about the allegations of the children, but it's about past allegations of Timothy Busfield, right? And I don't know if the court is going to ultimately allow that. Let's start there. Do you think that's going to be a big part of the case? Do you think a judge is actually going to allow that? Boy, I'll tell you what, that is going to be a close call. That is up to the judge. That is in the court's discretion, whether they allow those prior complaints into this trial. And that is a fair.

50-50 proposition at this point because, and here's my opinion on that. If some of those come into this trial, Timothy Bussfield could be in very deep trouble. And if none of those prior incidents coming to this trial, okay, he's going to have an easier time in the criminal case. So it's going to be a huge ruling. It's going to be litigated heavily and it's a close call. But she's limited in her being called as a witness, right? Like if the prosecution wanted to call her, isn't their spousal privilege in terms of what

he told her or she told him. I mean, do you think that she would be called as a witness in any capacity by the prosecution? You're right. She has, you know, the privilege of being a spouse, so anything he may have admitted to her or told her, she can assert the privilege. I don't think Melissa Gilbert's going to be a key witness in this trial. But she could be called as a witness for the defense, possibly. Oh, she absolutely could be called for the defense. And look, one of the strategic reasons for them doing that is she's Melissa Gilbert, right? Little House on the Prairie. You know, they're hoping that the jurors like her know who she is, have some empathy for her, and she's there to say, my husband never did this. I know him better than anybody. And they're

hoping that her celebrity status carries the day and gets him acquitted. It was interesting. There was a part of the interview where she said, you know, basically our lives are never going to be the same. You know, when someone's accused of this, it's very hard in the court of public opinion from a PR perspective to ever wash yourself of that, even if the charges are dropped, even if he's acquitted. Do you think that was part of her speaking out as well? And do you think people have already made up their minds regarding Timothy Bussfield? From a PR point of view, a career point of view, do you think it was important for her to do this? I think, look, I think she absolutely was giving this interview to generate sympathy, to generate. some buzz out there that, hey, look at these allegedly false allegations have destroyed our lives and that Timothy Busfield will never work again, that he's been canceled? Absolutely. I think that's

one of the big reasons why she did that interview. Do people make up their minds as soon as these hear these allegations? Absolutely they do. You know, I mean, let's face it. The second it comes out, Timothy Busfield, molested boys on the movie set, you know, a lot of people in our society. And righteously so sometimes they say okay i'm done with him but look i'm a lawyer and and you're you're a lawyer i i even though i represent victims and i'm a true believer on that i i am also believe in due process i think due process is so important in in our court system and and sometimes people don't get it and this raises a larger question so first of all yes he's he's innocent to proven guilty these are allegations i even had on larry stein uh as i mentioned on my news nation show jesse weber

Live, he basically said it's only the account of one of these children, not both in terms of the allegations of molestation. But here's the part that I was thinking. I circle back. You don't usually see criminal defendants do this. You don't usually see their spouses do this because the evidence could be arguably strong and they don't want to do anything to taint their defense. I was wondering, did she come out and do this because they believe that the prosecution's case is weak. You know, when I interviewed Stein, he made the point that since the judge released Busfield, given these allegations, it may show how weak the case is. I mentioned it before. The independent investigation allegedly found no corroborating evidence of sexual abuse. That, you know, Larry Stein came on my

show and he said, basically, that look how this child accuser first said nothing happened. And then made the allegation that the parents pressured the children to make up this account. And so when you see Melissa Gilbert doing an interview like this, does that signify to you that they believe the prosecution's case is weak and is the prosecution's case weak? I think Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield and that legal team absolutely believe that the prosecution case is weak. And that's one of the reasons why they're doing these interviews. Remember this, that Busfield took a lie detector test right around the time he was arrested. And in New Mexico, those lie detector tests can be admissible. And so now we don't know what questions he were asked and who administered it and whether

it was a, you know, a legitimate lie detector test. You have to assume it was. That's powerful evidence. And it's things like that that make you, you know, look a little more closely at the allegations in this case. And truly, I've read a lot on the case. This case, just standing alone, if you just look at those allegations, it's paper thin. It is a very, very thin, weak case for the prosecution. It just is. There's not a lot there. Looking at this case, we would have to accept if we go forward with Busfield's defense, or at least what was articulated by Mr. Stein, that these parents are pushing a falsehood, that they are deliberately lying about what happened and pressuring their children to go forward. I mean, that would be a crime for them to do that. And is that going to

be a part of the defense. Do you put the parents on the stand? Do you cross-examine them about, I laid out all their alleged past and the accusations that were put forward by Timothy Busfield's team? Do they become a central figure in this? I mean, is that going to be a tough road to argue that these parents are lying because they were upset that the children were not renewed on the show? I mean, essentially, you're accusing the parents of, I don't know the best way to say it, but lying and potentially committing a crime. Busfield's lawyers have come right out and called them straight up liars. That's going to be a central part of this case.

They are going to go on the attack. They are going to go after these parents. And let's face it, there's some things there that plays into Busfield's favor. I mean, this is things that are in the public realm is the father in California. He was convicted of wire fraud. And back in the, you know, 2008-9 time frame, when, we had this home mortgage crisis in the home crisis. He was running a law firm that duped many, many, many homeowners out of thousands of dollars.

And he went to prison for it. And he lost his law license because of it. So he's got a checkered history as well. Look, I hate to say it. I've seen parents coached their young children to say things that are not true. I've seen it. Not in my cases, but I have seen it happening. You look at divorce cases where the spouses are going after.

after each other and one of them coaches the kid to say something against the other spouse, it happens. And so Busfield has some legitimate arguments here that these two boys were potentially coached into saying that he sexually abused them. The point that I made to Stein on my show last night is we've seen this time and time again. The other way of looking at it is the counter argument is alleged victims can come forward or not come forward. They sometimes say, hey, nothing happened. And then they come back years later, days later, months later, and say, no, this really did happen. There's a number of different reasons why they may deny being abused and then ultimately say it happened. I mean, it's very

complicated. So I wonder how much that's going to play into this case, too. Those are the two competing themes. And there's no doubt about it that children, especially young children, is called delayed disclosure. And most kids who are sexually abused, they don't tell right away for a lot of different reasons. They don't think anyone would believe. leave them. They're scared. They're not quite sure what happened. They don't know that this is a sexually inappropriate act because they're too young to realize it, but they know something's wrong. They think their parents are going to get mad of them. So delayed disclosure absolutely happens all the time with young victims of sexual abuse. And it's not unusual at all. The other part of that that's

not unusual, is that victims often, they don't come right out and say, here's everything that happened sexually that they did to me. And here's the timeline for it. They're kids. They don't keep timelines. They don't have this perfect sense of timing in their head. And so things come out and bits and pieces over time. That is totally normal. And that's exactly what the prosecution's going to argue in this case. So according to deadline, we have a pretrial conference that is set for April 22nd. There is a May 27 trial date that was put on the calendar earlier this year. First of all, do you think those dates are going to stay? And what can we expect? I think those dates will stay. I mean, that's a year away from now for a trial date.

So I see no reason why that wouldn't go forward. And so, yes, I think I wouldn't be surprised if you see some more public statements from Busfield's legal team over time. You know, they're going to keep trying to put things out there as they get. closer to the trial to try to, you know, sway public opinion. Not sway a jury, though, right? Not sway a jury. Because they're not supposed to do that, right? They're not supposed to affect jury selection based on comments, but how does it work in practice?

Exactly. So unless the prosecution goes into the court and complains and says, hey, look, they're doing these interviews and it's tainting the jury pool, you know, a judge can then issue a basically a gag order and say, I don't want any of the lawyers talking about this case anymore. and I don't want any of the parties to give interviews anymore. That definitely happens. When Melissa Gilbert says that her husband is eventually going to speak out seemingly about the past allegations, but now is not the time.

What does that mean? Do you think that means he's going to take the stand? I'd be, again, in this case, I'd be surprised if he took the stand because his biggest vulnerability if he were to get on the witness stand is those prior complaints. And so if he were testifying and he somehow opened the door to those things, that would be devastating. So I'd be surprised if he ever takes the stand on this case. And, you know, look, that was another thing from Melissa Gilbert's interview that is kind of an eyebrow razor to me. Anytime someone says, you know, he's got a very good explanation for these prior complaints,

but we're not going to talk about him right now. It's not the right time. Why isn't it the right time? That's what we want to know about. So I think she's just dodging that issue. Or if he were to be acquitted or the charges were dropped, then he would probably go, I don't know, on GMA or do an interview and explain all that. So I think he's waiting for the criminal case to be resolved. We will see where this goes.

This is just a big development. I think it was very interesting. She did this interview. How could I not talk about it? David Ring, thank you so much for coming on. Taking the time as always, appreciate it. Thank you, Jesse. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar.

Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can also check us out on NBC's Peacock as well. If you want to follow me, X Instagram, my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday through Friday, 11 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you next time, everybody.