NEW YORK (Court TV) — Actress Melissa Gilbert is speaking out in defense of her husband, flatly denying charges that he sexually abused a child on the set of a television show.
Actor Timothy Busfield interviews his wife Melissa Gilbert as they are filmed by a Detroit Tigers videographer before the start of a baseball game in Detroit, Friday, May 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Actor Timothy Busfield, 68, is charged with four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor under 13 in New Mexico after allegedly touching a then-7-year-old boy inappropriately. The alleged misconduct allegedly took place on the set of the show “The Cleaning Lady,” on which Busfield was serving as both an actor and director.
Gilbert, who rose to fame on the television series “Little House on the Prairie,” married Busfield in 2013 and has supported him through the allegations. “It’s been a very traumatic time,” Gilbert told ABC’s Good Morning America in an interview with George Stephanopoulos. “We’ve been hearing and reading too much untruth, and we felt that the time was right to speak out.”
In a criminal complaint reviewed by Court TV, prosecutors say the alleged victim, identified as SL, said he was 7 when Busfield touched his private areas over his clothing multiple times. A therapist told investigators that the child reported “having nightmares about the director touching him and waking up scared.”
MORE | Actor Timothy Busfield turns himself in to face child sex abuse charges
Busfield’s civil attorney, Larry Stein, took aim at the allegations, telling Stephanopolous that the boy’s disclosure was based on the father’s description of the nightmares. “The boy would say,” Stein said, “‘I wasn’t having nightmares, I was just hot or cold,’ and the therapist would say, ‘Why didn’t you tell your father that you weren’t having nightmares?’ He said, ‘Because I didn’t want to disappoint him.'”
Stein accused the parents of concocting the story of abuse because they were upset their two sons were no longer needed on the show. “The boys are victims in this case,” Stein said. “They’re victims of the parents, not victims of Tim.”
Melissa Gilbert reacts as her husband Timothy Busfield is granted a conditional release. (AJ Skuy for Fox News Digital Pool Photo via AP)
The criminal complaint references two women who accused Busfield of sexual assault. The first woman filed a lawsuit against Busfield alleging that in 1994, when she was a 17-year-old on the set of “Little Big League,” Busfield groped her, served her alcohol, assaulted her and attempted to have sex with her. Busfield countersued for defamation; the cases were later settled at a cost of $150,000 for Busfield. No criminal charges were filed.
In 2012, a 28-year-old accused Busfield of putting his hands under her clothes and touching her genitals in a Los Angeles movie theater. Busfield claimed the contact was consensual and prosecutors elected not to prosecute the case, citing slim evidence.
Gilbert said that she was aware of both incidents when she married Busfield. “These allegations have been out in the ether for a very long time,” Gilbert said. “When Tim and I got together, the internet existed. I didn’t go into my relationship with him 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 no one has ever heard, which is the truth — and when the time is right, and that time is not now, Tim will tell the truth of all of these past allegations when he needs to.”
Busfield was released from custody on bond after his arrest. Gilbert said regardless of how the legal system plays out, nothing will ever be the same for her family. “This has been the msot 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 ideas, all of our projects, for Tim it’s done. It’s cancelled. Even if he’s exonerated, he will always be that guy. The last person in the world who would hurt a child. And believe me, if I thought for a second that Tim Busfield hurt a child, he’d have a lot more to worry about than prison.”
Busfield is due back in court this month for a status hearing ahead of his trial, scheduled for 2027.
