Jan. 20, 2026
"Cancelled. His Career Is Over." But Actor Timothy Busfield Is Getting Out of Jail
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RSS Feed Actor Timothy Busfield has just learned he's getting out of jail. A New Mexico judge denied the prosecution's motion to keep Busfield behind bars, pending trail. Busfield has been accused of improperly touching two boys on the set of a show. Amy and T. J. watched every emotional and fascinating moment of the just-wrapped hearing that left Busfield's wife, Melissa Gilbert, in tears.
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00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: Sit is Tuesday, January twentieth and a breaking story developing. Just as we are getting in front of these microphones. Actor Timothy Bussfield gets to go home. His court hearing just wrapped up and the judge is going to let him go home. The moment sent his wife Melissa Gilbert to tears with that welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Again. Robes has only been I mean literally less than ten minutes ago he wrapped this hearing. But it was something to see Melissa Gilbert, this iconic TV actress, sitting in a courtroom just a couple of rows behind her husband, accused of heinous crimes. But yes, he is going to get to go I.
00:00:54
Speaker 3: Actually was brought to tears watching Melissa Gilbert break down when she heard the judge say that Timmathy Busfield was going to get to go home. He didn't even put travel restrictions on him and let him leave on his own recognissance, so didn't even set some high dollar amount for him to be able to leave. It was the best case scenario for Timothy Busfield and Melissa Gilbert. The judge's decision was what they were hoping for most likely what they were praying for, and so to see all of that emotion come out after a two plus hour hearing, which was honestly riveting the entire time. It was remarkable what we learned and what we heard in court today.
00:01:37
Speaker 1: Because we yes, folks to explain here.
00:01:40
Speaker 2: You know the case by now, Timothy Busfield being accused by a couple of boys who worked on a show that he directed, of inappropriate contact with a minor or. The charges they're going after. He did turn himself in in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That's where the movie excuse me, the show was being shot. That's why they are there. He has been in jail rope since last week. It was kind of a surprise to a lot of people. The prosecution called this man an absolute danger and that can't be a child anywhere in his proximity that could be safe.
00:02:10
Speaker 3: The prosecutor was arguing today in court that there were no conditions that the court could set for his release that would guarantee the safety.
00:02:19
Speaker 4: Of the community.
00:02:20
Speaker 3: I mean they went in hard and they said there was no GPS could say that he wasn't with or around children. And interestingly, they used the support that Timothy Bussfield brought to court with him and used it against him.
00:02:37
Speaker 1: We both just.
00:02:38
Speaker 2: Rolled our eyes kind of in a way. We'll explain and we'll get into what the defense said, what the prosecution said, but first we'll just tell you, yes, what the judge says. So, yes, the headline is Timothy Busfield is getting to go home. He said he combined all of these factors and did not agree with the prosecution that there are no conditions that can be set that can keep the community safe.
00:03:00
Speaker 1: It makes sense.
00:03:00
Speaker 2: There's no evidence that shows there's any pattern of abusing his power or a pattern of grooming children. Those are two major things the judge hit on.
00:03:09
Speaker 3: That's right, because yes, prior allegations were brought up, but as it was pointed out, these were all post pubescent women, so there's no pattern of him abusing or any allegations of him abusing minors.
00:03:25
Speaker 1: So how is he.
00:03:25
Speaker 2: Supposed to consider that? It makes sense what the judge was saying. But you combine that with zero criminal history. The other allegations you just mentioned, they're not vetted by the criminal justice system, said, so it's difficult to give weight to all that. So ultimately, the judge said he can go out under his own recognizance to set the scene here. It was set for two o'clock local time, four o'clock on the East coast this afternoon, and they told us straight up it's going to be to each side gets an hour. Each side had a chance to bring witnesses, but even before we started they he came into court right on time, at four o'clock eastern and Rosy's still wearing that same orange ot. But he looked tired, disheveled. He looked exhausted.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: Disheveled is the word that I came to mind when I saw him walk in. He was a far cry from the actor we're used to seeing. And yeah, he looked exhausted, He looked beaten down. He looked emotionally and physically just spent, and that's understandable.
00:04:20
Speaker 2: And he was doing a little penguin walk. He was shackled, folks, He was shackled at his hands and his feet, and he was forced to walk in and out of court in that way.
00:04:31
Speaker 4: Like a penguin. Yeah, that's a really good description.
00:04:33
Speaker 1: Ought that was an extraordinary as well. And what would you say?
00:04:35
Speaker 2: His family, Melissa was sitting how many two rows back, Melissa.
00:04:38
Speaker 3: Was two rows back, and the camera it was pretty remarkable to have the camera. We saw Timothy the entire time. We saw Melissa a lot of the time. But yeah, she was flanked with at least a dozen folks who looked like they were either family or friends of Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Bussfield. And having that show of support was significant. It was visual for sure.
00:05:01
Speaker 2: And again he brought eighty seven letters of support with him and that ended up playing a role in this two hour hearing. Now, the prosecution got up first. She made clear, yes, I'm going to take some time and then I'm going to save some of my time for rebuttal later on. But she went a good forty forty five minutes to start, and she talked about how dangerous he was. But Rope some things we hadn't heard before. They came out, why we're here in the first place, Why the parents even thought to ask their kids. I hadn't heard this detail before, but it was kind of vague. They said the parents were tagged in a social media post about Tim Busfill's history, and that's why they decided to ask their kids.
00:05:40
Speaker 3: That is what they claim, And they said they asked their kids, has Tim ever inappropriately touched you? And the kids said no, And so they did acknowledge that. The prosecution's office did acknowledge that. But then they said, and they made a very big point to say that that is a very typical response, even from children who have been sexually abused, that it does and they're typically are delays in them acknowledging it. And then she was pointing out that they didn't acknowledge it to their parents. They acknowledge it ultimately to a therapist and then to a doctor. And so that's why she was saying these were valid, and they were specific and detailed ultimately, even though initially the kid said no.
00:06:25
Speaker 2: Okay, So that part about them telling a therapist and telling the doctor is going to come up again from the defense side, and it's a much different story continuing with the prosecution here. And again, I'm familiar with Loadi Young, the actress, because she was in a movie I like with Ryan Reynolds. It's the only reason I know about this French actress, and she was this was a big deal and they highly promoted this show. By the way, The Cleaning Lady four seasons these days ain't bad to be on broadcast network. The Cleaning Lady, she was the lead of this show. Now Robes the prosecutor kind of threw her her under the bus a little bit, and she seemed a little annoyed.
00:07:02
Speaker 3: Oh, she absolutely seemed annoyed. Elie Young, she said, was not compliant with this investigation. Those were the words she used. And she said that she was and had been close to the family. And we will hear later and have heard that Timothy Busfield has actually referenced Young telling him something about the parents that would be in the defense's favor, not in the prosecutions.
00:07:26
Speaker 2: Her name came up in that police report where he said he had contacted her and set up an interview and it was set and then the day before were supposed to have and she called and canceled and said she doesn't want anything to do with this. Well it sounded like this again. But she the boys played her child correct in the show. So I was surprised, well the prosecutors how close she was she vacationed with really close.
00:07:50
Speaker 1: With the family.
00:07:51
Speaker 2: Yes, and the kids were on the show for three seasons. This is a lot of time. These folks probably did it really close?
00:07:57
Speaker 3: Yes, and according to the bus Field camp, she is one of the ones who.
00:08:03
Speaker 4: Told Busfield that.
00:08:07
Speaker 3: She overheard when the parents found out that their children were not going to be picked up for season four. She said that basically she heard the mom say, I'm gonna have his ass, Timothy Bussfield's ass.
00:08:20
Speaker 2: What is just interesting that this actress is dead set in the center of all this.
00:08:25
Speaker 1: Now more about the boys here and robes.
00:08:27
Speaker 2: This was a little, i say, confusing, but I kept waiting for more to be there, probably from the prosecution, and this is all they got. But there was a lot of they said this, and they didn't say that, and they told the therapist and then they told it was a confusing story. I'll be honest, it was a confusing story. They were trying to weave about why what the boys were saying should absolutely be believed.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was confusing because they were She was doubling down on the fact that the boys didn't say they were ever alone with Timothy Vussfield, but that this all happened on set and by pretty much all accounts, there were at least ten to thirty people around at all times.
00:09:16
Speaker 4: So that was definitely puzzling to me.
00:09:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, she you know what, she she was the only one that didn't realize she wasn't having Perry Mason moments, Like she was really saying things as if, yeah, this is definitively the case and it wasn't there, and what she.
00:09:37
Speaker 3: Was saying, actually I didn't think and you didn't either. It seems like bolster her position. And yet she was saying things that she acted as though they carried weight or that they proved her point, when actually I felt like they disproved her point. So I was confused by her some of the points she was making because I felt like they went to the defense's.
00:10:00
Speaker 4: Favor, not to the prosecution's favor.
00:10:04
Speaker 2: But she did spend some time, and we did learn a couple of things here about some past allegations, and we did learn robes. I hadn't seen this anywhere, that he settled a civil lawsuit with someone that came forward to accuse him. Yeah, years and years ago. This is thirty thirty years ago.
00:10:18
Speaker 3: I believe the woman at the time was I say woman. But at seventeen, she brought up several allegations that, again the judge ultimately pointed out, were not vetted. So they weren't prosecuted, there were no police reports, there was no trial, so there's no way you can just say okay. And she detailed a seventeen year old we had already heard about the sixteen year old, that again was from thirty years ago. And then she mentioned a twenty eight year old woman as well.
00:10:49
Speaker 1: He claimed that was a consensual He.
00:10:51
Speaker 4: Claimed it was consensual.
00:10:52
Speaker 3: But her point was, all of these narratives described a similar pattern of just sexual contact.
00:10:59
Speaker 4: There wasn't sexual assault or sexual abuse.
00:11:02
Speaker 3: There wasn't any allegations of any sexual acts taking place other than fondling or touching, and so she's saying this was a pattern. But again, it was a little puzzling because these were all sixteen seventeen. And I'm not taking away any of those alleged victims experiences, but it's very different when you're talking about a seven year old boy or an eight year old boy.
00:11:25
Speaker 4: When it comes to a pattern, yes.
00:11:27
Speaker 1: And that doesn't flow with any pattern.
00:11:30
Speaker 4: She was trying to make it a pattern and it fell flat.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: To my point, she was trying to connect dots, and she was, to your point, proving the defense's point that this guy is not a danger certainly not to children.
00:11:46
Speaker 1: Eighty seven letters.
00:11:48
Speaker 2: Now, the defense, I think we knew this number ahead of time, but that he was going to bring bustle witness or witnesses, and that he had eighty seven letters of support from people who were saying he's a good guy, he wouldn't have done this, and so forth. That sounds like overwhelming, That sounds impressive in a week's time. However, the prosecutor said that is evidence of possible guilt and influence and power, and.
00:12:11
Speaker 1: That he's a bad dude.
00:12:12
Speaker 3: She was saying she actually used these eighty seven letters of support, which the defense claimed were in most cases unsolicited, like people were saying, what can I do?
00:12:22
Speaker 4: I was on the set. I saw this.
00:12:24
Speaker 3: I know him, I've worked with him, I can vouch for him.
00:12:27
Speaker 4: I would let my children be around him.
00:12:30
Speaker 3: The prosecution claimed that that proved how powerful he is, and that he could then if he could get eighty seven people in such a short amount of time to write a letter and vouch for him and say that their children could be around him, proves.
00:12:44
Speaker 4: That he's dangerous. I was scratching my hat on that one.
00:12:48
Speaker 2: What was the point here that she did say it that he is able to get people to blindly follow him based on his influence, his power, his money, his name, is what she was trying to say. And she made this point that these people don't know the evidence, they haven't heard anything. How could they just blindly say he's innocent.
00:13:10
Speaker 4: They know him, they worked with it.
00:13:12
Speaker 1: We are we've been doing this. This is the prosecution saying it. It's the justice system. Of course we're supposed to think he's in And that was.
00:13:21
Speaker 4: The defensi's point. Yes he has a presumption of innocence.
00:13:24
Speaker 1: She's called them idiots.
00:13:26
Speaker 6: And yes, and Busfields attorney is the first thing he said when he stood up, he said, I'm sorry. First of all, my client as he sits here today is an innocent man by our legal system.
00:13:40
Speaker 4: You're looking at him, and he's innocent. That's what our legal system will tell you.
00:13:43
Speaker 3: The prosecution is acting as if he's already been convicted.
00:13:47
Speaker 4: Am I in La la land?
00:13:48
Speaker 3: And I actually was so glad the defense attorney said this, because we were thinking.
00:13:52
Speaker 4: The same thing. I was like, what's happening right now? This is crazy?
00:13:57
Speaker 2: And she had two defense attorneys to get up there shout the guy went and then his female attorney did get out. But to your point, he came in hard and he responded directly to some things he heard the prosecution say. But first off was like, it's been seven days and that's all they got. He was almost just throwing, just insulting the case that they are put on. He said, every aspect of the case is flawed, is questionable, called it a fallacy, and Rhodes we both looked at each other when he said it. An arrest warrant is an order to police. It's not an order to the defendant. Don't hold it against him because you put out an arrest warrant. And he didn't come running.
00:14:35
Speaker 4: And he said it was three and a half days, not five.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: Yes, look at when the arrest warrant was issued Friday night, he was there by Tuesday morning. Two of those days were driving and another day he said, by my order, he went and had a light detector test, and he went and had well, I forgot it's able to test. It's basically to determine what you're sexually attracted to. So he was like, I told him to do that. He was going under my orders. He wasn't trying to do things his way. On his terms in his time. He was actually submitting to the actual law. He was following the law. He was doing what he was supposed to do. It was the police's responsibility to arrest him, yeah, not for him to turn himself in.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Never heard attorney put that way. That's it's not on him when you put an arrest warn out. But the defense, like we said, they were the only ones to put on a witness, and it was a single witness, and it was possibly an effective witness. Will tell you who that is and what he said and why the defense had such a such a strong closing stayre all right, recontinue here on Amy and TJ will wrap up with what the defense was saying today. In the Timothy Bussfiel pre trial detention hearing, in which it was determined after both sides put on evidence, the judge said that, yes, Timothy Bussfield can go home, can be released on his own recognisance pending trial which might never come quite frankly. One witness on the stand today, Robes, it was the DP that we saw mentioned in some of the court filings. Pretty effective.
00:16:14
Speaker 3: Yes, lead director of photography on the cleaning Lady been in the business for over thirty five years. Alan Cardillo was his name, and he was a very credible witness.
00:16:23
Speaker 4: He's also a father. Pointed that out.
00:16:24
Speaker 3: So he said that he was with Timothy Bussfield on set one hundred percent of the time. He said, it is not possible that inappropriate sexual contact happened at the cleaning lady. He said it was impossible.
00:16:43
Speaker 2: Well, he said it was impossible for them to be alone. He said, it's impossible that those kids were alone. That I believe the prosecutor got up there and said, well the kids, And we never said the kids were alone with him. We just said that the abuse was happened. So they are acknowledging the prosecution even during this thing that yep, the abuse happened, but it was when people were around.
00:17:04
Speaker 3: That's still a head scratcher because Allen Cardio said, this was his quote about Timothy Busfield.
00:17:09
Speaker 4: I never left his side.
00:17:13
Speaker 2: We've happened to be on movie sets and you see him all the time. There is no privacy, there is no quiet time. Kids legally have to be taken care of in a certain way on these they don't mess around.
00:17:23
Speaker 3: We said there were a minimum of ten people with the boys on set.
00:17:28
Speaker 4: At all times, including their parents.
00:17:30
Speaker 3: And speaking of the parents, Alan Cardillo had a lot to say about the father, specifically calling him aggressive, calling him creepy. He used that word, and he said that he was a set parent and trying to be his friend because he said, I think he thought I was more important or more powerful.
00:17:46
Speaker 1: His understood that I was.
00:17:48
Speaker 3: And he said that he thought it was creepy that he would direct He watched the father direct the boys to give him and other people, including Timothy Bussfield, a hug, and he thought that was not He just said, I didn't think that was great parenting.
00:18:02
Speaker 4: To force a child to hug.
00:18:03
Speaker 3: An adult or someone that they don't want to do, to make your child have physical contact with someone is weird. He said, I noted that and noticed it, and he called the father aggressive.
00:18:13
Speaker 2: He also said he never mentioned this to anybody else. I think that was the only point that the prosecution made that was effective. Said, hey, did you mention this thing, this creepy thing, to anybody else? And he said no, But at that point he was an effective witness. The defense team continued and she finished strong. She was great, She finished strong, but she made the point just flat out Timothy Busfill has been canceled and his career is over.
00:18:39
Speaker 4: He has no power.
00:18:40
Speaker 3: She said, you're worried about him being a danger, don't worry because his talent agency.
00:18:46
Speaker 4: Has dropped him.
00:18:47
Speaker 3: He was removed from a rom com that was about to be released. We know that they canceled his Law and Order SVU episode. That was like, she was, like, his career is over, his life is over, So he has no power. That's all gone and he'll never get it back. His career is done.
00:19:05
Speaker 1: And that's you hear that, And that's sad.
00:19:07
Speaker 2: As has been a long, long career and these are at this point allegations that is an innocent man and an innocent man period, point blank until otherwise. This was This was a very interesting point and worth mentioning. And this was part of the case that the defense was putting on money with these kids and how much they were making and how much of that money possibly was going to their.
00:19:29
Speaker 4: Parents eighty five percent. I didn't realize this.
00:19:31
Speaker 3: And the kids made well over a million dollars, so they were getting fifty to sixty thousand dollars an episode, so we're talking millions of dollars.
00:19:39
Speaker 4: If eighty five percent.
00:19:40
Speaker 3: Of that goes to the family, that's the law, or the parents. Fifteen percent has to be put into a special account for the children, so the parents were making a ton of money.
00:19:51
Speaker 4: That was very effective to hear that.
00:19:53
Speaker 3: But also I thought the audio that they played when the kids were first asked by the police officer if they were touched, they were emphatic and they were separated and they were asked and they said no, and it was just there was no hesitation, there was no nerves. It just seemed like, no, he didn't touch me. It was very effective. But the conditions now do we have.
00:20:19
Speaker 2: No, no, no, the strong clothes I'm talking about, you know, I don't let me skip that part that I thought that was the best. Yes, we talked about him and being canceled, being over but talking about yes, he said, we're not saying they're no victims in this case. Yeah, the kids are victims, but not victims of Timothy Busfield.
00:20:35
Speaker 3: They were victimized by their own parents, and they are saying that those parents coached them. Those parents wanted revenge on Timothy Busfield. And what they have why they are in this court to day, is because these parents they brought up the three years in prison, the father spent for fraudulent behavior, how he was disbarred.
00:20:55
Speaker 4: How she's like.
00:20:55
Speaker 3: These this isn't just like, oh, he got a duy. She's like, no, these parents and both of them were charged and convicted, and he spent time in jail for fraudulent acts, for deceiving people for money. That is absolutely relevant to this case because they're claiming that is what these parents are doing to Timothy Busfield.
00:21:14
Speaker 2: Because they have to do it. Because the father who went to prison has been disbarred for what he did, and the mom who has gotten busted in some schemes, she can't keep up with her scheming. They have no way to make money. And this is part of the motive they're putting together through all of this. Now, Timothy Busfield is going to be able, yes, to go home. The conditions he's, like we said, released on his own recognizance. He has to report to some pre trial services. He can travel, can't drink, can't use drugs, has to have no contact with the alleged victims, and no unsupervised time with anyone under the age of eighteen. The strongest line from the attorney enclosing about his career being over, but his liberty can be restored. Like this is awful, but this is the only thing. Only recourse we got now is to right or wrong, is to give the man his liberty back. And they'll know what you do with cases like this robes unless someone would come out and we cover that story as much and they say, yeah, it was all made up.
00:22:11
Speaker 1: It's a lie.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: Do you ever get the stain of an accusation of pedophilia of touching a little boy and appropriately you get that all again to work again?
00:22:21
Speaker 1: Can you?
00:22:22
Speaker 4: He will never work again?
00:22:23
Speaker 3: And I did also think it was interesting that the defense played a voicemail and said there was another where people who were used in.
00:22:30
Speaker 4: The affidavit for the prosecution.
00:22:33
Speaker 3: They said that their statements were taken out of contexts were used against.
00:22:36
Speaker 4: Them when they wanted to.
00:22:38
Speaker 3: They were upset with how their comments were misused by the prosecution to try and paint Timothy Bussfield in a negative light. That was interesting to me as well, and certainly drew into question what went into creating this narrative about Timothy Busfield and what the allegations are.
00:22:56
Speaker 4: So this was a.
00:22:57
Speaker 3: Fascinating afternoon, but the headline Timothy Bussfield is going home as he awaits the next steps in this very very salacious I guess I don't even want to say trial because we don't know that it's going to go to trial, but certainly these charges that he is facing, and so we will continue to monitor this story. It is developing, and we appreciate you as always for listening.
00:23:23
Speaker 4: To us, I mean, Amy Roboch alongside DJ Holmes.
00:23:26
Speaker 5: We will
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: Sit is Tuesday, January twentieth and a breaking story developing. Just as we are getting in front of these microphones. Actor Timothy Bussfield gets to go home. His court hearing just wrapped up and the judge is going to let him go home. The moment sent his wife Melissa Gilbert to tears with that welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Again. Robes has only been I mean literally less than ten minutes ago he wrapped this hearing. But it was something to see Melissa Gilbert, this iconic TV actress, sitting in a courtroom just a couple of rows behind her husband, accused of heinous crimes. But yes, he is going to get to go I.
00:00:54
Speaker 3: Actually was brought to tears watching Melissa Gilbert break down when she heard the judge say that Timmathy Busfield was going to get to go home. He didn't even put travel restrictions on him and let him leave on his own recognissance, so didn't even set some high dollar amount for him to be able to leave. It was the best case scenario for Timothy Busfield and Melissa Gilbert. The judge's decision was what they were hoping for most likely what they were praying for, and so to see all of that emotion come out after a two plus hour hearing, which was honestly riveting the entire time. It was remarkable what we learned and what we heard in court today.
00:01:37
Speaker 1: Because we yes, folks to explain here.
00:01:40
Speaker 2: You know the case by now, Timothy Busfield being accused by a couple of boys who worked on a show that he directed, of inappropriate contact with a minor or. The charges they're going after. He did turn himself in in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That's where the movie excuse me, the show was being shot. That's why they are there. He has been in jail rope since last week. It was kind of a surprise to a lot of people. The prosecution called this man an absolute danger and that can't be a child anywhere in his proximity that could be safe.
00:02:10
Speaker 3: The prosecutor was arguing today in court that there were no conditions that the court could set for his release that would guarantee the safety.
00:02:19
Speaker 4: Of the community.
00:02:20
Speaker 3: I mean they went in hard and they said there was no GPS could say that he wasn't with or around children. And interestingly, they used the support that Timothy Bussfield brought to court with him and used it against him.
00:02:37
Speaker 1: We both just.
00:02:38
Speaker 2: Rolled our eyes kind of in a way. We'll explain and we'll get into what the defense said, what the prosecution said, but first we'll just tell you, yes, what the judge says. So, yes, the headline is Timothy Busfield is getting to go home. He said he combined all of these factors and did not agree with the prosecution that there are no conditions that can be set that can keep the community safe.
00:03:00
Speaker 1: It makes sense.
00:03:00
Speaker 2: There's no evidence that shows there's any pattern of abusing his power or a pattern of grooming children. Those are two major things the judge hit on.
00:03:09
Speaker 3: That's right, because yes, prior allegations were brought up, but as it was pointed out, these were all post pubescent women, so there's no pattern of him abusing or any allegations of him abusing minors.
00:03:25
Speaker 1: So how is he.
00:03:25
Speaker 2: Supposed to consider that? It makes sense what the judge was saying. But you combine that with zero criminal history. The other allegations you just mentioned, they're not vetted by the criminal justice system, said, so it's difficult to give weight to all that. So ultimately, the judge said he can go out under his own recognizance to set the scene here. It was set for two o'clock local time, four o'clock on the East coast this afternoon, and they told us straight up it's going to be to each side gets an hour. Each side had a chance to bring witnesses, but even before we started they he came into court right on time, at four o'clock eastern and Rosy's still wearing that same orange ot. But he looked tired, disheveled. He looked exhausted.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: Disheveled is the word that I came to mind when I saw him walk in. He was a far cry from the actor we're used to seeing. And yeah, he looked exhausted, He looked beaten down. He looked emotionally and physically just spent, and that's understandable.
00:04:20
Speaker 2: And he was doing a little penguin walk. He was shackled, folks, He was shackled at his hands and his feet, and he was forced to walk in and out of court in that way.
00:04:31
Speaker 4: Like a penguin. Yeah, that's a really good description.
00:04:33
Speaker 1: Ought that was an extraordinary as well. And what would you say?
00:04:35
Speaker 2: His family, Melissa was sitting how many two rows back, Melissa.
00:04:38
Speaker 3: Was two rows back, and the camera it was pretty remarkable to have the camera. We saw Timothy the entire time. We saw Melissa a lot of the time. But yeah, she was flanked with at least a dozen folks who looked like they were either family or friends of Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Bussfield. And having that show of support was significant. It was visual for sure.
00:05:01
Speaker 2: And again he brought eighty seven letters of support with him and that ended up playing a role in this two hour hearing. Now, the prosecution got up first. She made clear, yes, I'm going to take some time and then I'm going to save some of my time for rebuttal later on. But she went a good forty forty five minutes to start, and she talked about how dangerous he was. But Rope some things we hadn't heard before. They came out, why we're here in the first place, Why the parents even thought to ask their kids. I hadn't heard this detail before, but it was kind of vague. They said the parents were tagged in a social media post about Tim Busfill's history, and that's why they decided to ask their kids.
00:05:40
Speaker 3: That is what they claim, And they said they asked their kids, has Tim ever inappropriately touched you? And the kids said no, And so they did acknowledge that. The prosecution's office did acknowledge that. But then they said, and they made a very big point to say that that is a very typical response, even from children who have been sexually abused, that it does and they're typically are delays in them acknowledging it. And then she was pointing out that they didn't acknowledge it to their parents. They acknowledge it ultimately to a therapist and then to a doctor. And so that's why she was saying these were valid, and they were specific and detailed ultimately, even though initially the kid said no.
00:06:25
Speaker 2: Okay, So that part about them telling a therapist and telling the doctor is going to come up again from the defense side, and it's a much different story continuing with the prosecution here. And again, I'm familiar with Loadi Young, the actress, because she was in a movie I like with Ryan Reynolds. It's the only reason I know about this French actress, and she was this was a big deal and they highly promoted this show. By the way, The Cleaning Lady four seasons these days ain't bad to be on broadcast network. The Cleaning Lady, she was the lead of this show. Now Robes the prosecutor kind of threw her her under the bus a little bit, and she seemed a little annoyed.
00:07:02
Speaker 3: Oh, she absolutely seemed annoyed. Elie Young, she said, was not compliant with this investigation. Those were the words she used. And she said that she was and had been close to the family. And we will hear later and have heard that Timothy Busfield has actually referenced Young telling him something about the parents that would be in the defense's favor, not in the prosecutions.
00:07:26
Speaker 2: Her name came up in that police report where he said he had contacted her and set up an interview and it was set and then the day before were supposed to have and she called and canceled and said she doesn't want anything to do with this. Well it sounded like this again. But she the boys played her child correct in the show. So I was surprised, well the prosecutors how close she was she vacationed with really close.
00:07:50
Speaker 1: With the family.
00:07:51
Speaker 2: Yes, and the kids were on the show for three seasons. This is a lot of time. These folks probably did it really close?
00:07:57
Speaker 3: Yes, and according to the bus Field camp, she is one of the ones who.
00:08:03
Speaker 4: Told Busfield that.
00:08:07
Speaker 3: She overheard when the parents found out that their children were not going to be picked up for season four. She said that basically she heard the mom say, I'm gonna have his ass, Timothy Bussfield's ass.
00:08:20
Speaker 2: What is just interesting that this actress is dead set in the center of all this.
00:08:25
Speaker 1: Now more about the boys here and robes.
00:08:27
Speaker 2: This was a little, i say, confusing, but I kept waiting for more to be there, probably from the prosecution, and this is all they got. But there was a lot of they said this, and they didn't say that, and they told the therapist and then they told it was a confusing story. I'll be honest, it was a confusing story. They were trying to weave about why what the boys were saying should absolutely be believed.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was confusing because they were She was doubling down on the fact that the boys didn't say they were ever alone with Timothy Vussfield, but that this all happened on set and by pretty much all accounts, there were at least ten to thirty people around at all times.
00:09:16
Speaker 4: So that was definitely puzzling to me.
00:09:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, she you know what, she she was the only one that didn't realize she wasn't having Perry Mason moments, Like she was really saying things as if, yeah, this is definitively the case and it wasn't there, and what she.
00:09:37
Speaker 3: Was saying, actually I didn't think and you didn't either. It seems like bolster her position. And yet she was saying things that she acted as though they carried weight or that they proved her point, when actually I felt like they disproved her point. So I was confused by her some of the points she was making because I felt like they went to the defense's.
00:10:00
Speaker 4: Favor, not to the prosecution's favor.
00:10:04
Speaker 2: But she did spend some time, and we did learn a couple of things here about some past allegations, and we did learn robes. I hadn't seen this anywhere, that he settled a civil lawsuit with someone that came forward to accuse him. Yeah, years and years ago. This is thirty thirty years ago.
00:10:18
Speaker 3: I believe the woman at the time was I say woman. But at seventeen, she brought up several allegations that, again the judge ultimately pointed out, were not vetted. So they weren't prosecuted, there were no police reports, there was no trial, so there's no way you can just say okay. And she detailed a seventeen year old we had already heard about the sixteen year old, that again was from thirty years ago. And then she mentioned a twenty eight year old woman as well.
00:10:49
Speaker 1: He claimed that was a consensual He.
00:10:51
Speaker 4: Claimed it was consensual.
00:10:52
Speaker 3: But her point was, all of these narratives described a similar pattern of just sexual contact.
00:10:59
Speaker 4: There wasn't sexual assault or sexual abuse.
00:11:02
Speaker 3: There wasn't any allegations of any sexual acts taking place other than fondling or touching, and so she's saying this was a pattern. But again, it was a little puzzling because these were all sixteen seventeen. And I'm not taking away any of those alleged victims experiences, but it's very different when you're talking about a seven year old boy or an eight year old boy.
00:11:25
Speaker 4: When it comes to a pattern, yes.
00:11:27
Speaker 1: And that doesn't flow with any pattern.
00:11:30
Speaker 4: She was trying to make it a pattern and it fell flat.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: To my point, she was trying to connect dots, and she was, to your point, proving the defense's point that this guy is not a danger certainly not to children.
00:11:46
Speaker 1: Eighty seven letters.
00:11:48
Speaker 2: Now, the defense, I think we knew this number ahead of time, but that he was going to bring bustle witness or witnesses, and that he had eighty seven letters of support from people who were saying he's a good guy, he wouldn't have done this, and so forth. That sounds like overwhelming, That sounds impressive in a week's time. However, the prosecutor said that is evidence of possible guilt and influence and power, and.
00:12:11
Speaker 1: That he's a bad dude.
00:12:12
Speaker 3: She was saying she actually used these eighty seven letters of support, which the defense claimed were in most cases unsolicited, like people were saying, what can I do?
00:12:22
Speaker 4: I was on the set. I saw this.
00:12:24
Speaker 3: I know him, I've worked with him, I can vouch for him.
00:12:27
Speaker 4: I would let my children be around him.
00:12:30
Speaker 3: The prosecution claimed that that proved how powerful he is, and that he could then if he could get eighty seven people in such a short amount of time to write a letter and vouch for him and say that their children could be around him, proves.
00:12:44
Speaker 4: That he's dangerous. I was scratching my hat on that one.
00:12:48
Speaker 2: What was the point here that she did say it that he is able to get people to blindly follow him based on his influence, his power, his money, his name, is what she was trying to say. And she made this point that these people don't know the evidence, they haven't heard anything. How could they just blindly say he's innocent.
00:13:10
Speaker 4: They know him, they worked with it.
00:13:12
Speaker 1: We are we've been doing this. This is the prosecution saying it. It's the justice system. Of course we're supposed to think he's in And that was.
00:13:21
Speaker 4: The defensi's point. Yes he has a presumption of innocence.
00:13:24
Speaker 1: She's called them idiots.
00:13:26
Speaker 6: And yes, and Busfields attorney is the first thing he said when he stood up, he said, I'm sorry. First of all, my client as he sits here today is an innocent man by our legal system.
00:13:40
Speaker 4: You're looking at him, and he's innocent. That's what our legal system will tell you.
00:13:43
Speaker 3: The prosecution is acting as if he's already been convicted.
00:13:47
Speaker 4: Am I in La la land?
00:13:48
Speaker 3: And I actually was so glad the defense attorney said this, because we were thinking.
00:13:52
Speaker 4: The same thing. I was like, what's happening right now? This is crazy?
00:13:57
Speaker 2: And she had two defense attorneys to get up there shout the guy went and then his female attorney did get out. But to your point, he came in hard and he responded directly to some things he heard the prosecution say. But first off was like, it's been seven days and that's all they got. He was almost just throwing, just insulting the case that they are put on. He said, every aspect of the case is flawed, is questionable, called it a fallacy, and Rhodes we both looked at each other when he said it. An arrest warrant is an order to police. It's not an order to the defendant. Don't hold it against him because you put out an arrest warrant. And he didn't come running.
00:14:35
Speaker 4: And he said it was three and a half days, not five.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: Yes, look at when the arrest warrant was issued Friday night, he was there by Tuesday morning. Two of those days were driving and another day he said, by my order, he went and had a light detector test, and he went and had well, I forgot it's able to test. It's basically to determine what you're sexually attracted to. So he was like, I told him to do that. He was going under my orders. He wasn't trying to do things his way. On his terms in his time. He was actually submitting to the actual law. He was following the law. He was doing what he was supposed to do. It was the police's responsibility to arrest him, yeah, not for him to turn himself in.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Never heard attorney put that way. That's it's not on him when you put an arrest warn out. But the defense, like we said, they were the only ones to put on a witness, and it was a single witness, and it was possibly an effective witness. Will tell you who that is and what he said and why the defense had such a such a strong closing stayre all right, recontinue here on Amy and TJ will wrap up with what the defense was saying today. In the Timothy Bussfiel pre trial detention hearing, in which it was determined after both sides put on evidence, the judge said that, yes, Timothy Bussfield can go home, can be released on his own recognisance pending trial which might never come quite frankly. One witness on the stand today, Robes, it was the DP that we saw mentioned in some of the court filings. Pretty effective.
00:16:14
Speaker 3: Yes, lead director of photography on the cleaning Lady been in the business for over thirty five years. Alan Cardillo was his name, and he was a very credible witness.
00:16:23
Speaker 4: He's also a father. Pointed that out.
00:16:24
Speaker 3: So he said that he was with Timothy Bussfield on set one hundred percent of the time. He said, it is not possible that inappropriate sexual contact happened at the cleaning lady. He said it was impossible.
00:16:43
Speaker 2: Well, he said it was impossible for them to be alone. He said, it's impossible that those kids were alone. That I believe the prosecutor got up there and said, well the kids, And we never said the kids were alone with him. We just said that the abuse was happened. So they are acknowledging the prosecution even during this thing that yep, the abuse happened, but it was when people were around.
00:17:04
Speaker 3: That's still a head scratcher because Allen Cardio said, this was his quote about Timothy Busfield.
00:17:09
Speaker 4: I never left his side.
00:17:13
Speaker 2: We've happened to be on movie sets and you see him all the time. There is no privacy, there is no quiet time. Kids legally have to be taken care of in a certain way on these they don't mess around.
00:17:23
Speaker 3: We said there were a minimum of ten people with the boys on set.
00:17:28
Speaker 4: At all times, including their parents.
00:17:30
Speaker 3: And speaking of the parents, Alan Cardillo had a lot to say about the father, specifically calling him aggressive, calling him creepy. He used that word, and he said that he was a set parent and trying to be his friend because he said, I think he thought I was more important or more powerful.
00:17:46
Speaker 1: His understood that I was.
00:17:48
Speaker 3: And he said that he thought it was creepy that he would direct He watched the father direct the boys to give him and other people, including Timothy Bussfield, a hug, and he thought that was not He just said, I didn't think that was great parenting.
00:18:02
Speaker 4: To force a child to hug.
00:18:03
Speaker 3: An adult or someone that they don't want to do, to make your child have physical contact with someone is weird. He said, I noted that and noticed it, and he called the father aggressive.
00:18:13
Speaker 2: He also said he never mentioned this to anybody else. I think that was the only point that the prosecution made that was effective. Said, hey, did you mention this thing, this creepy thing, to anybody else? And he said no, But at that point he was an effective witness. The defense team continued and she finished strong. She was great, She finished strong, but she made the point just flat out Timothy Busfill has been canceled and his career is over.
00:18:39
Speaker 4: He has no power.
00:18:40
Speaker 3: She said, you're worried about him being a danger, don't worry because his talent agency.
00:18:46
Speaker 4: Has dropped him.
00:18:47
Speaker 3: He was removed from a rom com that was about to be released. We know that they canceled his Law and Order SVU episode. That was like, she was, like, his career is over, his life is over, So he has no power. That's all gone and he'll never get it back. His career is done.
00:19:05
Speaker 1: And that's you hear that, And that's sad.
00:19:07
Speaker 2: As has been a long, long career and these are at this point allegations that is an innocent man and an innocent man period, point blank until otherwise. This was This was a very interesting point and worth mentioning. And this was part of the case that the defense was putting on money with these kids and how much they were making and how much of that money possibly was going to their.
00:19:29
Speaker 4: Parents eighty five percent. I didn't realize this.
00:19:31
Speaker 3: And the kids made well over a million dollars, so they were getting fifty to sixty thousand dollars an episode, so we're talking millions of dollars.
00:19:39
Speaker 4: If eighty five percent.
00:19:40
Speaker 3: Of that goes to the family, that's the law, or the parents. Fifteen percent has to be put into a special account for the children, so the parents were making a ton of money.
00:19:51
Speaker 4: That was very effective to hear that.
00:19:53
Speaker 3: But also I thought the audio that they played when the kids were first asked by the police officer if they were touched, they were emphatic and they were separated and they were asked and they said no, and it was just there was no hesitation, there was no nerves. It just seemed like, no, he didn't touch me. It was very effective. But the conditions now do we have.
00:20:19
Speaker 2: No, no, no, the strong clothes I'm talking about, you know, I don't let me skip that part that I thought that was the best. Yes, we talked about him and being canceled, being over but talking about yes, he said, we're not saying they're no victims in this case. Yeah, the kids are victims, but not victims of Timothy Busfield.
00:20:35
Speaker 3: They were victimized by their own parents, and they are saying that those parents coached them. Those parents wanted revenge on Timothy Busfield. And what they have why they are in this court to day, is because these parents they brought up the three years in prison, the father spent for fraudulent behavior, how he was disbarred.
00:20:55
Speaker 4: How she's like.
00:20:55
Speaker 3: These this isn't just like, oh, he got a duy. She's like, no, these parents and both of them were charged and convicted, and he spent time in jail for fraudulent acts, for deceiving people for money. That is absolutely relevant to this case because they're claiming that is what these parents are doing to Timothy Busfield.
00:21:14
Speaker 2: Because they have to do it. Because the father who went to prison has been disbarred for what he did, and the mom who has gotten busted in some schemes, she can't keep up with her scheming. They have no way to make money. And this is part of the motive they're putting together through all of this. Now, Timothy Busfield is going to be able, yes, to go home. The conditions he's, like we said, released on his own recognizance. He has to report to some pre trial services. He can travel, can't drink, can't use drugs, has to have no contact with the alleged victims, and no unsupervised time with anyone under the age of eighteen. The strongest line from the attorney enclosing about his career being over, but his liberty can be restored. Like this is awful, but this is the only thing. Only recourse we got now is to right or wrong, is to give the man his liberty back. And they'll know what you do with cases like this robes unless someone would come out and we cover that story as much and they say, yeah, it was all made up.
00:22:11
Speaker 1: It's a lie.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: Do you ever get the stain of an accusation of pedophilia of touching a little boy and appropriately you get that all again to work again?
00:22:21
Speaker 1: Can you?
00:22:22
Speaker 4: He will never work again?
00:22:23
Speaker 3: And I did also think it was interesting that the defense played a voicemail and said there was another where people who were used in.
00:22:30
Speaker 4: The affidavit for the prosecution.
00:22:33
Speaker 3: They said that their statements were taken out of contexts were used against.
00:22:36
Speaker 4: Them when they wanted to.
00:22:38
Speaker 3: They were upset with how their comments were misused by the prosecution to try and paint Timothy Bussfield in a negative light. That was interesting to me as well, and certainly drew into question what went into creating this narrative about Timothy Busfield and what the allegations are.
00:22:56
Speaker 4: So this was a.
00:22:57
Speaker 3: Fascinating afternoon, but the headline Timothy Bussfield is going home as he awaits the next steps in this very very salacious I guess I don't even want to say trial because we don't know that it's going to go to trial, but certainly these charges that he is facing, and so we will continue to monitor this story. It is developing, and we appreciate you as always for listening.
00:23:23
Speaker 4: To us, I mean, Amy Roboch alongside DJ Holmes.
00:23:26
Speaker 5: We will