Authorities in New Mexico launched an audio recording of director Timothy Busfield denying sexually abusing two youngster actors on the set of TV collection The Cleansing Girl.
Police launched physique digital camera footage from a detectives’ name with Busfield in New York in November 2025, after he was accused of inappropriately touching a minor on the set of a TV collection, which he was directing in New Mexico between November 2022 and early 2024.
Within the audio, obtained by NBC affiliate KOB, Busfield, who faces 4 counts of legal sexual contact with a baby, claimed that he was by no means alone with the kid actors accusing him of inappropriately touching them and mentioned, “by no means something of any sexual, any bizarre, ever with them. That’s disgusting.”
Within the cellphone name, when requested if he’d ever “tickled” the actors, Busfield mentioned, “Extremely doubtless that I might have… it was, you realize, a playful surroundings is what I wished. The dad would make them hug me, say, ‘Go hug Uncle Tim.’”
Busfield’s spouse, Melissa Gilbert, was additionally on the cellphone name and defended her husband.
“I’m going to only soar in right here too as a former child actor. It’s actually essential that the youngsters really feel comfy with the individuals they’re working with. It’s simply customary apply to turn into as pleasant with them as attainable,” she mentioned.
Marvin Kirk Brown with the Albuquerque Police Division (APD) filed a legal criticism in January, following an investigation that started in November 2024, when investigators responded to a name from a physician on the College of New Mexico Hospital. The youngsters’s mother and father had gone there on the suggestion of a regulation agency, the criticism mentioned.
In accordance to the legal criticism, an investigator with the APD mentioned a boy reported that Busfield touched him on his personal areas over his clothes on one event when he was seven years previous and a second time when he was eight. The boy’s twin brother instructed authorities he was additionally touched by Busfield, however didn’t specify the place, and mentioned he didn’t inform anybody as a result of he feared he would get in bother, the criticism mentioned.
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Busfield denied the allegations when interviewed by authorities final fall as a part of an investigation, in keeping with the criticism.
Brown mentioned he first known as and left a message with Busfield asking him to return his name on Nov. 3, 2025.
“At 10:44 am, I acquired a name from Timothy Busfield, who suggested me that I used to be on speaker cellphone with him and his spouse, actor Melissa Gilbert [best-known for her role as Laura Ingalls in classic TV series Little House on the Prairie]. Timothy suggested that the 2 have been in New York on the time. I did advise him that I used to be investigating a case that was assigned to me, and requested Timothy if he want to communicate with me concerning the case. Timothy did need to communicate with me at the moment,” the criticism learn.
Throughout their cellphone dialog, Brown requested Busfield if he “ever had any bodily contact with these boys and if he ever picked them up and tickled them.”
“Timothy mentioned it was extremely doubtless that he would have,” the affidavit mentioned. “Timothy mentioned it was a playful surroundings, like he wished. Nonetheless, Timothy mentioned that the dad, Ronald, would make SL and VL hug him, and he didn’t actually need them to.”
Brown mentioned he requested Busfield what the “protocol was for touching kids and selecting them up” and in addition requested “if it was allowed.”
“Timothy initially mentioned, ‘It’s not allowed in any respect. There is no such thing as a, there’s no protocol. I imply, I’m all the time round individuals, proper? Uh, uh, uh, it could be, it could be, you realize, in entrance of the mother and father. There would by no means be a bizarre second about it. I don’t actually bear in mind selecting these boys up. Uh, I bear in mind selecting up the boy who adopted them. I’d decide him up, and he’d be laughing and that may kind of get him able to act,’” Brown recalled Busfield saying within the authorized doc.
He mentioned Busfield then acknowledged, “‘I don’t bear in mind these boys. No, I don’t, I don’t truly, I don’t bear in mind it, it, if it occurred, I don’t bear in mind overtly tickling the boys ever, however it wouldn’t be unusual for me.’”
Brown mentioned Busfield and his spouse instructed him they did have a relationship with the 2 kids and their household exterior of labor.
“They suggested that they did purchase the 2 boys Christmas presents and have been collectively on a number of social features,” the criticism added.
In her first sit-down interview with Good Morning America (GMA), Gilbert, 61, and civil lawyer Larry Stein spoke concerning the Christmas presents she and her husband gave the youngsters.
“Tim didn’t give the boys presents. Melissa gave them presents. Melissa gave them and each different youngster at a Christmas get together a present. Each youngster on the Christmas get together, not treating them particular or totally different than anybody,” Stein mentioned.
When requested if Gilbert’s rivalry is that the mother and father are “simply making this all up,” Stein interjected and mentioned, “Completely,” and Gilbert mentioned, “Sure.”
When requested what justice would appear like within the case, Gilbert mentioned it could embody “exoneration, an apology” and “freedom from this cloud.”
In a video shared earlier than turning himself in, Busfield known as the allegations towards him “lies.”
“They’re all lies and I didn’t do something to these little boys and I’m gonna struggle it. I’m going to struggle it with a fantastic crew, and I’m going to be exonerated, I do know I’m, as a result of that is all so improper and all lies,” he mentioned.
Busfield’s trial date is tentatively set for Could 2027 in New Mexico.
— With recordsdata from The Related Press
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