The top lawyer for Timothy Busfield has let loose with some sharp words for the parents of The Cleaning Lady child actors at the heart of the sex abuse accusations made against the Emmy winner.
“We appreciate George for taking the time to clarify some important facts in this case,” Larry Stein told Deadline today after appearing in an interview early Monday with Busfield’s famous spouse Melissa Gilbert on Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos.
Stein added: “We hope the remainder of the interview airing on tonight’s Nightline will make clear that the parents are criminals: one served more than three years in jail and lost their license to practice law for defrauding 1,500 people of $6,000,000, and the other for writing bad checks and stealing cars.”
ABC News declined to comment on what is and is not in the longer interview segments set to be broadcast in the midnight hour tonight.
However, the interview scheduled for Nightline does not go heavy on the pasts of SL-R and VL-R’s parents Angele Lasalle and Ronald Rodis, I’ve learned from sources. Stein’s barbs as well as implications of a shakedown have been brought up before in filings in the sordid case.
In the footage on GMA Monday morning, the Stephanopoulos sit-down noted that Busfield’s attorneys have long declared the parents of the twin child actors “wanted revenge” against the thirtysomething vet and journeyman director for their sons being recast on the Élodie Yung starrer.
Monday, Little House on the Prairie star Gilbert told Stephanopoulos: “This has been the most 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 dreams, all of our ideas, all of our projects. For Tim, it’s done. He’s canceled. Even if he’s exonerated, he will always be that guy. The last person in the world who would hurt a child.”
Both parents of the boys are on the long witness list submitted back in February by the office of Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, who is running to be New Mexico’s next governor. Several other individuals who claim to have been sexually abused or harassed by Busfield over the decades are on the prosecution’s witness list too.
On January 9, Busfield was charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and child abuse stemming from alleged incidents involving the two minor boys on the New Mexico set of the Fox/Warner Bros TV series. Busfield directed several episodes of The Cleaning Lady during its four-season run from 2022-25.
Being held without bond at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center after turning himself in and being arrested and booked, Busfield appeared briefly in Judge Felicia Blea-Rivera’s courtroom remotely on January 14. Also on January 14, as Deadline exclusively reported, Busfield was dropped by his longtime agency Innovative Artists.
On January 20, with defense lawyers calling the boys’ parents “con artists” in court, Judge David Murphy rejected the DA’s desire to keep Busfield locked up and ordered the defendant released.
Timothy Busfield greets defense attorney Christopher Allen Dodd (R) before his hearing at the Bernalillo County Courthouse on January 20, 2026 in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
While Judge Murphy didn’t put any travel restrictions on the East Coast-based Busfield that day, he did say the accused is to have no “unsupervised contact with any minor children in this case.” He added that Busfield is “not to have any contact with the alleged victims or their families, and you’re also not to discuss the case with any witnesses.”
Seated next to Stein, Gilbert was in the courtroom supporting her husband on January 20.
Melissa Gilbert, wife of director and actor Timothy Busfield, attends a hearing her husband’s January 20 hearing alongside lawyer Larry Stein
Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images
The next benchmark in the Busfield case, which saw an indictment come down on February 6, will be a pre-trial conference on April 22. A May 2027 trial date was put on the calendar earlier this year.
