Table of Contents
Tim Busfield, who starred in “Thirtysomething” and “The West Wing,” found himself on a grand jury in Albuquerque, New Mexico, earlier this year, according to court documents. Timothy Busfield, 69, is a working actor and director, but not anymore, according to his testimony, revealed exclusively by USA TODAY from a public records request to the District Attorney’s office in Albuquerque.
Tim Busfield told the 12-member grand jury that his career is over; his last hope was that the child sex abuse accusations against him would not ruin his wife, Melissa Gilbert’s life, too, according to the video. The actor and director was indicted in February on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child in connection with alleged incidents that occurred while he was working on the New Mexico–based series “The Cleaning Lady” in the late 2022 and early 2024.
“My children, grandchildren, everybody in my life is done because of these false allegations for money and for revenge. These two criminals (the boys’ parents) have ruined me. And my wife and her business, I’m not going to break that,” Busfield said in the hearing in February.
His wife, Melissa Gilbert, the former child star of “Little House on the Prairie,” is the cofounder of lifestyle brand Modern Prairie. With the July 9 Netflix reboot of “Little House,” Gilbert promotes prairie-inspired wares, from $58 limited-edition hand-carved wood figurines of Laura Ingalls Wilder to $128 patchwork denim overalls.
Busfield told the grand jury that he did not touch the twin boys inappropriately, and that their parents wanted revenge for cutting them out of the fourth season of the crime-thriller, and that they manufactured the abuse and manipulated their children to say that. In testimony that lasted more than two hours, Busfield apologized to the grand jury for veering off-topic, for being nervous, and said, “This is all very real, and the stakes are very high.”
“My career’s done. I’m, I’m canceled. I’ll never, I don’t, I’ll never work again just based on people’s fear that I would do this again, and even if it wasn’t true, I’m done. I’ve lost TV shows, a movie they’ve digitally replaced me from. My agency fired me. I’m done. This is not about me or a pity thing.”
What’s Next in Tim Busfield’s Criminal Case
Twelve jurors convened in Albuquerque on Feb. 5, heard more than four hours of testimony from Albuquerque Police Officer Marvin Brown and Busfield, and voted to indict him that same day. Busfield’s defense team, led by attorney Larry Stein, previously said in a statement to USA TODAY that “the indictment was not unexpected” and that Busfield is innocent. USA TODAY has reached out to Stein for an update.
“A grand jury will indict a ham sandwich. What is deeply troubling is that the District Attorney is choosing to pursue a fundamentally unsound and unprovable theory at trial,” Stein previously said in a statement. Busfield’s defense team on June 18 asked the court to throw out the indictment, saying that the prosecution did not provide the grand jury with a fair and impartial presentation of the case and also gave them wrong legal advice. A trial has been scheduled for May 2027.
The Allegations Against Timothy Busfield
The boys accused Busfield of inappropriate touching on the set of the New Mexico–based series “The Cleaning Lady” and said that Busfield called them “uncle Tim.” One of the boys said Busfield touched his genitals over his clothing multiple times.
An investigation into the case began in November 2024, when a University of New Mexico Hospital staff member raised concerns that the boys were being ‘groomed’ by Busfield after their mother brought them in for an examination after she suspected that they had been sexually assaulted. The hospital staff found no evidence of assault. Police questioned the boys, and they said they were not sexually assaulted.
In the subsequent year, during September 2025, the boys opened up to the counselors that they had been sexually mistreated. Police officers received this lead and decided to start a fresh investigation. After police had collected all the information they deemed necessary, they decided to arrest Busfield.
Busfield has not said anything about the new allegations publicly. According to a video published to TMZ in January, Busfield said he is going to “face these lies. ”Due to privacy concerns for the boys and their families, USA TODAY will not name them. It is a policy of USA TODAY that sexual assault victims should remain anonymous.
Tim Busfield Denies All Allegations
Tim Busfield told the grand jury that others on set, from the director of photography to the hair and makeup artists, said he was not alone with the boys. The boys, he says, were always supervised on set. “I have never been inappropriate in any way, physically, sexually, in any way with a child, prepubescent little boy. I’ve never, ever been inappropriate like that,” Busfield said to the jurors.
Detective Brown gave the grand jury the results of more than 10 interviews with people at the facility where the boys were boarded. During one of the interviews, a set teacher who said she did not always supervise the boys spoke with Brown. Two production assistants confirmed this version of events and told Brown that they often saw the boys unsupervised.
Brown interviewed another person from the facility, who told him that he spent all of his time with Busfield on the set, never seeing him tickle or touch the boys. Brown told the grand jury that Busfield initially said that he had not touched the boys, but then told him that he had tickled them.
“He would tickle them and get them pumped up for the next set,” Brown said. Busfield told the grand jury, “I probably may have touched them, never inappropriately or sexually. The dad would say, ‘Go hug Uncle Tim,’ so I would touch them then. I never initiated that.
I don’t remember ever kissing either one of those boys. Did I ever, uh, have my arms around those boys? Absolutely. Pictures? Absolutely. Uh, that’s what you do. Did I, during the picture, when the parents say smile, give them a tickle under the ribs like you would your own kids? Yes. Did they ever touch them on their body inappropriately? Never, ever once.”
Tim Busfield Claims Parents Coached the Children
“The parents would coach the kids, “Busfield told the jurors that the parents fabricated the abuse as revenge for cutting the boys from the show and losing their $30,000 combined salary per episode. “(The boys) are the victims of these criminals. It’s terrible. I shouldn’t call them criminals. The parents would coach the kids and manufacture (the lies). I find that horrible for those young boys’ lives that they’re going to have to live with those lives,” Busfield said.
The records of the U.S. District Court, combined with the official statement of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, showed that the father was the one responsible for not fulfilling his duties. His law license in California was taken away, and he spent three years in jail on the charge of wire fraud conspiracy for taking cash from homeowners during foreclosure and not supporting them, which he was expected to do.
Moreover, he was told he would need to pay $3.5 million to the victims as a form of restorative justice. According to records from the Nevada courts, the boys’ mother has several judgments against her for writing bad checks and owing money to Las Vegas casinos for gambling debts.
Prosecutors Defend the Investigation
Brown said to the grand jury that when a child reveals that they are a victim of sexual assault, investigators do not “start accusing the parents of being a bad parent.” “Our job is to determine whether or not that happened, not the criminal behavior or past of a parent. We have children who are sexual assault victims, whether the father or mother had been released from a penitentiary, but just because they were a criminal in the past doesn’t mean that they can’t have a child who’s been a victim of sexual assault.”
Busfield testified that there was a video of the boys telling the police that Busfield had not touched them. The boys initially told the police that Busfield had not touched them. Brown said that this is typically the case with prepubescent boys, who are often embarrassed.
“This child’s delayed disclosure was authentic. If the child had been coached, why wouldn’t he have disclosed initially when the first officer asked them? For the child to go through multiple therapy sessions and disclose to a licensed therapist nine months later or 10 months later doesn’t sound like coaching to me,” Brown said. “Not only did the therapist believe the child, the forensic interviewer believed the child, I believed the child by watching the interview, and it was consistent that this child was not lying.”
A judge will review evidence on Busfield’s motion to quash the grand jury’s indictment on Aug. 25. Busfield does not have to be present for the hearing. Melissa Gilbert, the wife of Buschfield, went on the set, and she’s been really active in promoting the show. They packed up their belongings last June and moved from their apartment in New York City to their cabin in the Catskills.
