{"id":2233748,"date":"2026-01-14T00:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T00:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2233748"},"modified":"2026-01-14T00:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T00:13:07","slug":"actor-director-timothy-busfield-turns-himself-in-on-child-sex-abuse-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/actor-director-timothy-busfield-turns-himself-in-on-child-sex-abuse-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor-Director Timothy Busfield Turns Himself In On Child Sex Abuse Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Director and Emmy Award-winning actor Timothy Busfield turned himself to authorities on Tuesday to face child sex abuse charges in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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His apprehension comes after authorities in Albuquerque issued a warrant for his arrest<\/a> on Friday on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse. The charges stem from allegations that Busfield inappropriately touched a young boy on the set of the TV series \u201cThe Cleaning Lady\u201d that he was directing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Busfield, who is married to actor Melissa Gilbert<\/a>, is known for appearances in \u201cThe West Wing,\u201d \u201cField of Dreams\u201d and \u201cThirtysomething,\u201d the latter of which won him an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series in 1991.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Busfield was being booked by Albuquerque police on the charges, said Gilbert Gallegos, spokesperson for the city police department.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A criminal complaint filed by an investigator with the Albuquerque Police Department says the boy reported that he was 7 years old when Busfield touched him three or four times on private areas over his clothing. Busfield allegedly touched him five or six times on another occasion when he was 8, the complaint said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The child was reportedly afraid to tell anyone because Busfield was the director and he feared he would get mad at him, the complaint said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The boy\u2019s twin brother told authorities he was touched by Busfield but did not specify where. He said he didn\u2019t say anything because he didn\u2019t want to get in trouble.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Busfield denied the allegations last fall when interviewed by authorities as part of the investigation, the complaint said. He suggested that the boys\u2019 mother was seeking revenge for her children being replaced on the series. He also said he likely would have picked up and tickled the boys, saying the set was a playful environment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Busfield\u2019s attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday. A video obtained by TMZ showed Busfield in front of a window with the Albuquerque skyline in the backdrop. He said he arrived in the city after driving 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m going to confront these lies. They\u2019re horrible. They\u2019re all lies,\u201d Busfield said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The mother of the twins \u2014 who are identified only by their initials in court records \u2014 reported to Child Protective Services that the abuse occurred between November 2022 and spring 2024, the complaint said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The investigation began in November 2024, when the investigator responded to a call from a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The boys\u2019 parents had gone there at the recommendation of a law firm, the complaint said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to the complaint, one of the boys has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. A social worker documented him saying he has had nightmares about Busfield touching him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe Cleaning Lady\u201d aired for four seasons on Fox, ending in 2025. The show was produced by Warner Bros., which according to the complaint conducted its own investigation into the abuse allegations but was unable to corroborate them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Director and Emmy Award-winning actor Timothy Busfield turned himself to authorities on Tuesday to face child sex abuse charges in New Mexico. His apprehension comes after authorities in Albuquerque issued a warrant for his arrest on Friday on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2233749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[314411,359445,364974],"class_list":["post-2233748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-new-mexico","tag-timothy-busfield","tag-west-wing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Actor-Director-Timothy-Busfield-Turns-Himself-In-On-Child-Sex-Abuse.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2233748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2233750,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233748\/revisions\/2233750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2233749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2233748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2233748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2233748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}