Melissa Gilbert’s husband, Timothy Busfield, facing warrant for child sex abuse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only person who's never heard of Melissa Gilbert?

You don’t know Half Pint?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is hard to know what really happened. In November 2024 the parents asked the kids if anyone ever made them feel uncomfortable and they said “like Uncle Tim?”. So the dad took them to a law firm. But why go to a law firm instead of their pediatrician or the police?

So the lawyer said take them to get an two kids were examined at the university of New Mexico hospital and interviewed by a police detective who was in the child abuse unit and they denied anything more than being tickled. The crimes against children detective was consulted and said there wasn’t enough evidence.

Almost a year later on 10/3/25 the mother called CPS and said both her kids had told a therapist they were abused. What is odd is that the therapist was told by only one of the kids on 9/9/25. They kids werent interviewed by police until 10/31/25 by Safe House child forensic interviewer. Who thinks Halloween is a good day to interview kids? One of the twins said he was abused and one saud he wasn’t.

The person who allegedly heard the mother say she was going to get revenge was going to be interviewed but keft a message the day before the interview to say she had nothing to add, but it doesn’t looked like anyone followed up with her.

Theye was an independent law firm investigation into the matter bevause Warner Brothers received an anonymous complaint in Feb 2025. In that interview the person who didn’t want to get involved with police said the statement about the revenge. The report was given to police in 12/31/25 and that day the detective interviewed two people.

The New Mexico police seemed to have dropped the ball. There is a lot there to charge him but at the same time there is some room for doubt. He seems creepy but in the other hand it seems like it would be hard to defend yourself against allegations if the parents wanted revenge or a payday.

This is a confusing case. I'm withholding judgment until officials weigh in. Things like the Safe House child forensic interviewer's evident will hold the most weight for me. Kids can be coached, but there should be evidence from pediatrician etc. if there was abuse.

Former prosecutor of child sex abuse crimes and no, that’s just not true. (As an aside it’s also not true in most adult rape cases, either.)

The crimes alleged by the boys wouldn’t leave any physical evidence, especially since they weren’t immediately disclosed. There would be nothing for a pediatrician to find.

One of the reasons that sexual assault cases across the board have the lowest conviction rates of any kinds of crimes - and so very few even get charged and even fewer ever go into a courtroom - is because there is rarely forensic evidence, it is far more often just the testimony of the victim and perhaps someone to whom the victim disclosed and other circumstantial evidence.

And juries bring a lot of cultural bias to these cases, which it is very hard to weed out in voir dire.

What do you make that in 2024 they denied allegations and were interviewed and examined and a year later one child does. Is this common or this is now problematic getting a conviction? This just seems awful for the kids. Since they were on a TV show they are easily identifiable. Why didn't they try to do a better job hiding their identities or blacking out parents names?

On the last point, no way to hide their identities once the circumstances of the sa are detailed. Only takes some light googling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is hard to know what really happened. In November 2024 the parents asked the kids if anyone ever made them feel uncomfortable and they said “like Uncle Tim?”. So the dad took them to a law firm. But why go to a law firm instead of their pediatrician or the police?

So the lawyer said take them to get an two kids were examined at the university of New Mexico hospital and interviewed by a police detective who was in the child abuse unit and they denied anything more than being tickled. The crimes against children detective was consulted and said there wasn’t enough evidence.

Almost a year later on 10/3/25 the mother called CPS and said both her kids had told a therapist they were abused. What is odd is that the therapist was told by only one of the kids on 9/9/25. They kids werent interviewed by police until 10/31/25 by Safe House child forensic interviewer. Who thinks Halloween is a good day to interview kids? One of the twins said he was abused and one saud he wasn’t.

The person who allegedly heard the mother say she was going to get revenge was going to be interviewed but keft a message the day before the interview to say she had nothing to add, but it doesn’t looked like anyone followed up with her.

Theye was an independent law firm investigation into the matter bevause Warner Brothers received an anonymous complaint in Feb 2025. In that interview the person who didn’t want to get involved with police said the statement about the revenge. The report was given to police in 12/31/25 and that day the detective interviewed two people.

The New Mexico police seemed to have dropped the ball. There is a lot there to charge him but at the same time there is some room for doubt. He seems creepy but in the other hand it seems like it would be hard to defend yourself against allegations if the parents wanted revenge or a payday.

This is a confusing case. I'm withholding judgment until officials weigh in. Things like the Safe House child forensic interviewer's evident will hold the most weight for me. Kids can be coached, but there should be evidence from pediatrician etc. if there was abuse.

Former prosecutor of child sex abuse crimes and no, that’s just not true. (As an aside it’s also not true in most adult rape cases, either.)

The crimes alleged by the boys wouldn’t leave any physical evidence, especially since they weren’t immediately disclosed. There would be nothing for a pediatrician to find.

One of the reasons that sexual assault cases across the board have the lowest conviction rates of any kinds of crimes - and so very few even get charged and even fewer ever go into a courtroom - is because there is rarely forensic evidence, it is far more often just the testimony of the victim and perhaps someone to whom the victim disclosed and other circumstantial evidence.

And juries bring a lot of cultural bias to these cases, which it is very hard to weed out in voir dire.

What do you make that in 2024 they denied allegations and were interviewed and examined and a year later one child does. Is this common or this is now problematic getting a conviction? This just seems awful for the kids. Since they were on a TV show they are easily identifiable. Why didn't they try to do a better job hiding their identities or blacking out parents names?

They did not “deny” anything. It didn’t come up yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the affidavit. You all defending him need to read this. There are plenty of interviews with people on the set. There’s enough to go after him.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/busfield-new-mexico-affidavit_Redacted.pdf

NO ONE is defending him. The sane among us are simply saying to wait until all the facts come out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only person who's never heard of Melissa Gilbert?

You don’t know Half Pint?

Yeah I'm in my early 30s and never heard of her is crazy. Little House reruns were on TV Land when I was in elementary/middle school lol.

Couldn't tell you much about her personal life or what else she's been in but never hearing of her at all is wild.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the affidavit. You all defending him need to read this. There are plenty of interviews with people on the set. There’s enough to go after him.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/busfield-new-mexico-affidavit_Redacted.pdf

NO ONE is defending him. The sane among us are simply saying to wait until all the facts come out.

Yes they were. Saying the kids have been coached, the parents want revenge and the timeline is fishy. Bull. This guy is a grade A creep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only person who's never heard of Melissa Gilbert?

Yes.,

I'm an home grown American in my 60s and I can't remember her face. She's kind of forgettable. A lot of immigrants post here and can be forgiven for not knowing Melissa Gilbert from a potato.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only person who's never heard of Melissa Gilbert?

You don’t know Half Pint?

Yeah I'm in my early 30s and never heard of her is crazy. Little House reruns were on TV Land when I was in elementary/middle school lol.

Couldn't tell you much about her personal life or what else she's been in but never hearing of her at all is wild.

I think she was president of SAG.

[Anonymous]

The thing that strikes me as odd here is the range of victims. Previously all of the victims were post-pubescent females, even if minors. Even though the facts are certainly bad, they don’t equate to true pedophilia in my mind and every single allegation was from a female. Suddenly we have clearly pre-pubescent boys. It seems so different. Is it common for someone to switch victim profiles so completely? (Serious question. I will wait for all of the evidence to come out, but think his guilt is likely given what we currently know. I just find the 7 year old boy to 28 year old woman gamut to be fairly surprising.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The thing that strikes me as odd here is the range of victims. Previously all of the victims were post-pubescent females, even if minors. Even though the facts are certainly bad, they don’t equate to true pedophilia in my mind and every single allegation was from a female. Suddenly we have clearly pre-pubescent boys. It seems so different. Is it common for someone to switch victim profiles so completely? (Serious question. I will wait for all of the evidence to come out, but think his guilt is likely given what we currently know. I just find the 7 year old boy to 28 year old woman gamut to be fairly surprising.)

+1
I agree. And the fact that the mother of the twins stated she would be getting her revenge on Busfield for replacing her kids with a different actor. It would have been very easy to look up his prior SA incidents and realize how easy it would be make up another.

Note to the rabid: I am not - in any way - saying that the boys made up these allegations. If they're true, it's hideous. BUT, there are definitely some issues here if you take a breath and read all of the details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the affidavit. You all defending him need to read this. There are plenty of interviews with people on the set. There’s enough to go after him.

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/busfield-new-mexico-affidavit_Redacted.pdf

It seems like we must have read different documents... That affidavit doesn't have any corroborating evidence. The closest thing was probably the anonymous complaint.

[Anonymous]

Where was the onset child supervisor during all of this? And where were the parents? I’m not blaming them for the accused’s bad behavior but they both have specific roles in keeping children on sets safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing that strikes me as odd here is the range of victims. Previously all of the victims were post-pubescent females, even if minors. Even though the facts are certainly bad, they don’t equate to true pedophilia in my mind and every single allegation was from a female. Suddenly we have clearly pre-pubescent boys. It seems so different. Is it common for someone to switch victim profiles so completely? (Serious question. I will wait for all of the evidence to come out, but think his guilt is likely given what we currently know. I just find the 7 year old boy to 28 year old woman gamut to be fairly surprising.)

+1
I agree. And the fact that the mother of the twins stated she would be getting her revenge on Busfield for replacing her kids with a different actor..

I don't think it's accurate at this point to say "the fact that the mother of the twins stated she would be getting her revenge on Busfield"...

We don't know for a fact that she stated it.

What the affidavit says is that:

Busfield said he had heard from Elodie Yung, the lead actress on the show, that the boys’ mother “wanted revenge” because her sons were not brought back for the final season.

Yung declined to speak to the police, saying she “does not want to be involved in the investigation,”.

Until we hear more from Yung, it's hard to know if she really heard or said anything about the mother wanting revenge. The only fact so far is that Busfield says that Yung said that the mother said something about revenge. I am not a lawyer, but that sounds like a lot of hearsay to wade through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing that strikes me as odd here is the range of victims. Previously all of the victims were post-pubescent females, even if minors. Even though the facts are certainly bad, they don’t equate to true pedophilia in my mind and every single allegation was from a female. Suddenly we have clearly pre-pubescent boys. It seems so different. Is it common for someone to switch victim profiles so completely? (Serious question. I will wait for all of the evidence to come out, but think his guilt is likely given what we currently know. I just find the 7 year old boy to 28 year old woman gamut to be fairly surprising.)

+1
I agree. And the fact that the mother of the twins stated she would be getting her revenge on Busfield for replacing her kids with a different actor..

I don't think it's accurate at this point to say "the fact that the mother of the twins stated she would be getting her revenge on Busfield"...

We don't know for a fact that she stated it.

What the affidavit says is that:

Busfield said he had heard from Elodie Yung, the lead actress on the show, that the boys’ mother “wanted revenge” because her sons were not brought back for the final season.

Yung declined to speak to the police, saying she “does not want to be involved in the investigation,”.

Until we hear more from Yung, it's hard to know if she really heard or said anything about the mother wanting revenge. The only fact so far is that Busfield says that Yung said that the mother said something about revenge. I am not a lawyer, but that sounds like a lot of hearsay to wade through.

The affidavit states that an independent law firm doing an investigation in March of 2025 for Warner Bro interviewed her and is quoted as, "Elodie Yung did talk with Christian and stated,“She was shocked when Mrs. Rodis said to her and her husband. that she did not like what this [her sons being terminated] brought out of her, but that she would get her revenge against Tim Busfield.”

A huge confounding factor in this case is that New Mexico has become a really big film location and I wonder if New Mexico officials are reluctant to charge another actor. Alec Baldwin is suing for "malicious prosecution" after his cases was dismissed with prejudice (so he can never be tried again). The judge in the case found violation in the discovery that the prosecution had withheld a batch of ammunition evidence from Baldwin's defense team.

And also any WB employees might be reluctant to testify because they are afraid of losing future jobs in the industry.

It just seems so awful for the kids.

[Anonymous]

Tickling on set is a MAJOR red flag. He admitted to that.