Emmy-winning actor Timothy Busfield is officially in police custody in New Mexico, days after allegations that he sexually abused two child actors on the set of the Fox drama \u201cThe Cleaning Lady\u201d came to light. <\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Albuquerque Police Department confirmed on Tuesday that the 68-year-old actor \u201cturned himself in at the Metro Detention Center.\u201d Busfield, known for television series \u201cThe West Wing\u201d and \u201cThirtysomething,\u201d will be booked on his arrest warrant, the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n
Busfield denied the allegations in a video published by TMZ.<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m gonna confront these lies,\u201d he said in the video, \u201cthey\u2019re horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n In the video reportedly filmed at his attorney\u2019s office, the actor said he was informed about the warrant for his arrest on Friday, the same day it was issued. He said he procured legal representation and on Saturday \u201cgot in a car and drove 2,000 miles to Albuquerque.\u201d<\/p>\n He added of the allegations: \u201cThey\u2019re all lies and I did not do anything to those little boys.\u201d<\/p>\n Busfield said he and his legal team would \u201cfight\u201d against the charges, and he predicted, \u201cI\u2019m gonna be exonerated.\u201d He urged supporters to \u201chang in there,\u201d thanked them for their support and said he looked forward to returning to work. <\/p>\n Attorney Stanton \u201cLarry\u201d Stein said in a statement on Tuesday that the actor was innocent and \u201cdetermined to clear his name.\u201d Stein also referenced the affidavit, in which Busfield suggested to the investigator that the child actors\u2019 mother might have sought \u201crevenge\u201d on the director for \u201cnot bringing her kids back for the final season.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat followed appears to be a calculated effort to construct a case, driven by animus not fact, despite prior investigations finding no evidence of wrongdoing,\u201d Stein said. <\/p>\n Last week, a New Mexico judge issued a warrant for Busfield\u2019s arrest<\/a> on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and a single count of child abuse. According to an affidavit, Busfield is accused of inappropriately touching two child actors, who are brothers, while he worked as a director on the Fox drama. <\/p>\n Fox, along with \u201cCleaning Lady\u201d producer Warner Bros. Television, said on Sunday that it prioritizes the health and safety of its cast and crew and was aware of the charges against Busfield. The studios also said they had been working, and will continue to work, with law enforcement in its investigation. <\/p>\n The actors\u2019 mother, per the complaint, reported the alleged abuse to the state\u2019s child protective services in October 2025, claiming that Busfield sexually abused her children from November 2022 to spring 2024. Police launched an investigation in November 2024 after being notified by a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital of alleged abuse the children experienced.<\/p>\n The affidavit, which details the alleged abuse the minor actors experienced, said Warner Bros. Television in the spring of 2025 investigated a complaint concerning Busfield\u2019s behavior with a minor actor on set. An anonymous complaint made through the SAG-AFTRA hotline in February 2025 accused Busfield of kissing \u201ca minor male on his face\u201d in December 2024 while the child was in the hair and makeup trailer, according to documents. \u201cThe anonymous complaint further alleged that there are pictures of Mr. Busfield, \u2018tickling and caressing the head and body of minor boys,\u2019\u201d the affidavit said. <\/p>\n Busfield\u2019s attorney on Tuesday included a statement from the third-party investigator Warner Bros. Television retained to investigate the misconduct complaint. <\/p>\n \u201cBased on what was alleged, and all evidence gathered, including multiple witness statements, I found no corroborating evidence that Mr. Busfield engaged in inappropriate conduct or that he was ever alone with the twins on set,\u201d workplace investigator Christina McGovern said. <\/p>\n Stein added: \u201cThe claims being made against Tim are completely false, and we will fight this to the end until the truth prevails.\u201d <\/p>\n Busfield surrendered himself less than a day after several outlets reported that the U.S. Marshals Service<\/a> would aid New Mexico officials in their search for the actor. Prior to the child sex abuse allegations, the \u201cThirtysomething\u201d actor had been accused of sexual assault by two separate women in the 1990s<\/a> and in 2012<\/a>. <\/p>\n As the allegations against Busfield became public, his wife, \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d actor Melissa Gilbert, reportedly removed her profile on Instagram. In a statement Tuesday, Gilbert\u2019s publicist Ame Van Iden said the actor, 61, would not publicly comment on her husband\u2019s case and denounced \u201cany purported statements.\u201d<\/p>\n Iden said in the statement that Gilbert stands by her husband and would focus on \u201csupporting and caring for their very large family, as they navigate this moment.\u201d Busfield has three adult children from two previous marriages and is the stepfather to Gilbert\u2019s two adult sons from her two previous marriages. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emmy-winning actor Timothy Busfield is officially in police custody in New Mexico, days after allegations that he sexually…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":514400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[229710,79645,42356,229581,229582,229711,19351,2385,171,229585,115006,11198,11004,226454,5618,67,132,68,989],"class_list":{"0":"post-514399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-68-year-old-actor","9":"tag-allegation","10":"tag-arrest-warrant","11":"tag-busfield","12":"tag-child-actor","13":"tag-child-sex-abuse-case","14":"tag-count","15":"tag-day","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-fox-drama","18":"tag-gilbert","19":"tag-new-mexico","20":"tag-statement","21":"tag-timothy-busfield","22":"tag-tuesday","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-video"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115890896484941238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}