ABC News98%
Melissa Gilbert speaks out on husband’s arrest: ABC News exclusive 53%
4/6/2026, 12:30:35 PM
BS Summary: This video contains 31 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Appeal to Authority, and Availability Heuristic, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 19.1% saturation with 182 hits. Analysis detected 2,312 faulty-reasoning hits from 951 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 51.5% and a BS Rank of 53% (8,042 of 16,813 videos). This video is worse (more manipulative) than 52.20% of the video peer group.
ABC News exclusive with actress Melissa Gilbert and George you sat down with her.
>> Yeah, I did. Of course her husband Timothy Busfield has been accused and in charge of this sexual contact with a minor and she was really just determined to speak out.
Why speak out now? It's time.
Um we've been hearing and reading too much uh untruth and we felt that the time was right to speak out.
Also, honestly, I wasn't capable until now. It's been a very traumatic time.
In February, Timothy Busfield was indicted by an Albuquerque grand jury on four counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor.
Busfield has pled not guilty and is out on bail.
He's scheduled to go on trial next year.
The charges stem from allegations Busfield inappropriately touched a child actor on the set of a TV show he was directing called The Cleaning Lady when the child was between 7 and 8 years old.
When did you enter the US? According to the criminal complaint, last September a therapist who interviewed the child documented him disclosing having nightmares about the director touching him and waking up scared.
Allegations Busfield denied in this video obtained by TMZ.
I'm going to confront these lies. They're horrible.
They're all lies and I did not do anything to those little boys.
uh and I'm I'm going to fight it.
>> All rise. Busfield's attorneys allege the parents of twin child actors on the show blamed Busfield when their sons were recast in 2024 and wanted revenge claiming in court documents a witness heard the boy's mother say that if her children were not brought back, she would get Timothy Busfield.
The criminal complaint doesn't just reference what the parents said. It of course references what the boys said in these interviews.
What the boys said originally was he never touched me.
They were both asked at the time and they were specifically asked you know what's appropriate. You know where touching is appropriate.
Did he ever touch you?
In any in a proper in both boys said no. >> But in subsequent interviews, one of the boys did say he was touching him inappropriately.
>> boys in that interview was preceded by the father telling the boy when he would wake up at night that he was having nightmares.
The boy would say and we have this in the records. The boy would say, I wasn't having nightmares.
I was just hot or cold. And the therapist said, well, why didn't you tell your father that you weren't having nightmares? He said, because I didn't want to disappoint him.
But the prosecution contends the alleged touching was first reported by a therapist, not the parents.
One of the other things the criminal complaint says is that you had some kind of relationship with the family, with the boys and the parents. And I'll just quote it and then you can respond to that.
They advise that they did buy the two boys Christmas gifts and were together on several social functions.
>> Tim did not give the boys gifts. Melissa gave them gifts. Melissa gave them and every other child at a Christmas party a gift.
Every child at the Christmas party, not treating them special or different than anyone.
So so is your contention just that the parents and the boys are just making this all up?
>> Absolutely. The father The father The The The boys are victims in this case. They're victims of the parents, not victims of Tim.
Tim. Busfield's attorney accused the parents of seeking financial gain.
And when they were fired they assumed Tim was responsible for it. The truth is he was not.
ABC News reached out to the parents of the children but did not hear back.
In a statement to ABC News, the Bernalillo County District Attorney whose office is prosecuting Busfield said, a neutral grand jury indicted the defendant.
This office follows our ethical duty to only proceed on cases where a good faith basis exists to prosecute.
The criminal complaint also includes references to two women who'd accused Timothy of sexual assault back in 1994 and 2012.
Uh he settled one of the cases. Were you aware of these cases before?
>> No, he The criminal complaint? I I I got I I got this one.
>> [laughter] >> I I need to make something really
abundantly clear. Um these allegations have been out in the ether for a very long time And that means you knew about them.
>> When Tim and I got together, the internet existed. I didn't go into my relationship with him blind.
I am 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 is not now, Tim will tell the truth of all of these past allegations when he needs to.
What the prosecution is saying now is that they and they cite other reports of other women making allegations that this is part of a pattern.
But the pattern is supposedly that someone who is powerful that someone who is powerful will do something to someone who won't report it because they're powerful.
A six or seven-year-old boy is not going to not report something they're uncomfortable about because of the power of a director.
Maybe a woman who wants to be in film or television. Little boys can be scared.
But But little boys were asked
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