Timothy Busfield Accused of Child Sex Abuse on "The Cleaning Lady" Set

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Actor Timothy Busfield Accused of Child Sex Abuse in New Mexico
by Audrey McAvoy
Jan. 9, 2026


Authorities in New Mexico issued an arrest warrant Friday for director and Emmy Award-winning actor Timothy Busfield to face a child sex abuse charge.

An investigator with the Albuquerque Police Department filed a criminal complaint in support of the charge, which says a child reported that Busfield touched him inappropriately. The acts allegedly occurred on the set of “The Cleaning Lady”, a TV series Busfield directed and acted in.

“The Cleaning Lady” aired for four seasons on Fox, ending in 2025.





The child said the first incident happened when he was 7 years old and Busfield touched him three or four times. Busfield allegedly touched him five or six times on another occasion when he was 8.

The child’s mother reported to Child Protective Services that the abuse occurred between November 2022 and Spring 2024, the complaint said.

Busfield’s attorney and agent did not immediately respond to email messages seeking comment late Friday.




The arrest warrant, which was signed by a judge, said the charge is for two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor.

According to the complaint, the child, which it identifies only by his initials, has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. A social worker documented him saying he has had nightmares about Busfield touching him and woken up scared.

The child was reportedly afraid to tell anyone because Busfield was the director and he feared he would get mad at him.




The investigation began in November 2024, when the investigator responded to a call from a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital. The child’s parents had gone there at the recommendation of a law firm, the complaint said.

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.

Busfield is married to actress Melissa Gilbert (Little House on the Prairie); there was no immediate response to an email sent to her publicist.

https://apnews.com/article/timothy-b...0f3c8af02fb523

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U.S. Marshals Brought In for Timothy Busfield’s Arrest on Child Sex Abuse Warrant from New Mexico Cops
by Dominic Patten
January 12, 2026


The feds are now on the case to arrest Timothy Busfield on child sex abuse charges out of New Mexico.

“Albuquerque Police Department are working with the U.S. Marshal Service to get Mr. Busfield into custody,” APD spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos told Deadline on Monday of the DOJ’s primary agency for fugitive investigations.

“I do not have a timeline,” added Gallegos, director of communications for the department.

https://deadline.com/2026/01/timothy...se-1236681301/

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Timothy Busfield Turns Himself in to Police in Child Sex Abuse Case
by Gene Maddaus
Jan. 13, 2026


Timothy Busfield has turned himself into police after a warrant was issued Friday accusing him of sexual abuse of a minor.

“Timothy Busfield has turned himself in at the Metro Detention Center,” said an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman in a statement. “He will be booked on his warrant.”

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/tim...se-1236630420/

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Timothy Busfield Mugshot Released; DA Wants to Keep Actor Behind Bars Until Child Sex Abuse Case Goes to Trial
by Dominic Patten
January 13, 2026


Timothy Busfield, who turned himself in today to face child sexual abuse charges, has been officially arrested and booked by the Albuquerque Police Department. The actor has proclaimed he is innocent of the accusations.

Looking at potentially decades in New Mexico prison if found guilty, on the felonies, Busfield was booked at 1:08 pm PT at the Bernalillo County Metro Detention Center.




Soon after Busfield’s booking, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office announced it “intends to file a motion seeking to keep Mr. Busfield in custody while the case proceeds through the judicial process.”

The office of DA Sam Bregman added: “A judge will then determine whether Busfield remains detained or is released pending trial. The District Attorney’s Office routinely files pretrial detention motions in cases involving these types of charges.”




In a short video sent out just before surrendering to the APD, the Emmy winner declared: “I’m going to confront these lies. They’re horrible, they’re all lies, and I did not do anything to those little boys. And I’m going to fight it. I’m going to fight it with a great team, and I’m going to be exonerated. I know I am, because this is all so wrong and all lies.”

https://deadline.com/2026/01/timothy...es-1236681991/

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Timothy Busfield Enters No Plea in First Court Appearance on Child Sex Abuse Charges
by Dominic Patten
January 14, 2026


Timothy Busfield did not enter a plea today in New Mexico to charges of child sex abuse. Looking at years in prison if found guilty, he will remain in custody and be back in court in less than a week to fight a pre-trial motion by prosecutors to keep him incarcerated.

All Busfield said in the less than five minutes he was before the judge was “thank you, your honor,” at the end before shuffling away to court officers.




Earlier Wednesday, after a new allegation of sexual abuse against Busfield emerged, his lawyer Larry Stein sent out a missive of a successful lie detector test by his client.

“Tim Busfield denies the allegations in the criminal complaint and maintains they are completely false,” the attorney said. “As a voluntary step, he submitted to an independent polygraph examination regarding those allegations and passed.”




In the new allegation, the victim’s father, Colin Swift, reported to law enforcement that Busfield had sexually abused his 16-year-old daughter during an audition that took place “several years ago” in Sacramento, Calif.

“While auditioning for the defendant at B Street Theatre, the 16-year-old reported that the defendant kissed her and put his hands down her pants and touched her privates,” the motion reads. “The defendant begged the family to not report it to law enforcement if he received therapy.”

Swift, who works as a therapist, “thought at the time that was the best thing to do,” per the motion.

https://deadline.com/2026/01/timothy...es-1236683116/

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Timothy Busfield Bond Hearing Set as DA Lays Out Next Steps in Sex Abuse Case
by Rick Porter
January 15, 2026


Timothy Busfield will be back in court next week for a hearing on whether he’ll be allowed to leave jail while a sex abuse case against him moves through the courts.

Sam Bregman, the DA for Bernalillo County, New Mexico, said at a press conference Thursday that Busfield will have a pretrial detention hearing on Jan. 20.



Bregman’s office has filed a motion that the actor and director remain in custody before going to trial, arguing that Busfield has shown a “calculated pattern of predatory conduct” in the past.

The motion also contains a new allegation that in the early 2000s, Busfield groped a then 16-year-old girl auditioning for a role at the B Street Theatre, a theater company he co-founded in Sacramento, California (he is no longer involved in the company).



In his press conference, Bregman said he would not go into detail about the allegations in the case, preferring to save his and his prosecutors’ arguments for the courtroom. He did, however, lay out a timeline of the next steps in the case, beginning the with pretrial detention hearing on Jan. 20.

Following that hearing, the DA’s office will bring formal charges against Busfield, and he’ll be arraigned and have a chance to enter a plea. Assuming it goes to trial, the case will probably play out over a span of 12 to 18 months, Bregman said.

Bregman declined to directly answer a question about whether more possible victims might come to light, but he did say the case is “still very much under investigation.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...et-1236475379/

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Timothy Busfield Slams Child Sex Abuse Case for “Absence of Genuine Evidence”; "thirtysomething" Castmates Offer Strong Support
by Dominic Patten
January 16, 2026


With strong support from the cast and co-creator of "thirtysomething" and others, Timothy Busfield has come out forcefully tonight against the child sex abuse charges against him, as well as attempts by prosecutors to keep him behind bars.

“The State’s attempt to transform responsible self-surrender into aggravating conduct only underscores the absence of genuine evidence of dangerousness,” declares an opposition filing just placed in the New Mexico courts seeking to blunt pre-trial efforts by Bernalillo County DA ( and gubernatorial candidate) Sam Bergman’s office.




“The Motion asks the Court to imprison a man based on a story that has already collapsed under independent scrutiny,” the exhibit-heavy document from Albuquerque attorneys Amber Fayerberg and Christopher Dodd says.

“The State offers no reliable proof—only allegations advanced by witnesses with documented histories of fraud and financial exploitation, contradicted by a comprehensive studio investigation, and refuted by witnesses and objective risk assessments. The Constitution does not allow liberty to be forfeited on such a foundation. The State’s Motion should be denied.”

“For all of these reasons—the independent investigation that undermined the State’s allegations at every turn, the affirmative findings of the polygraph and ABEL assessment, the overwhelming evidence of character and community support, and the absence of any reliable proof of dangerousness—the State cannot meet its burden of clear and convincing evidence that no conditions of release will reasonably protect the community. The Constitution requires release under appropriate conditions.”




In a November 3, 2025 telephone interview with APD Officer Marvin Brown (which is quoted in the warrant), Busfield responded in part to the claims of abuse by saying that “lead actress, Elodie Yung” told him back in late 2024 that “the mother of SL and VL (sic) that she wanted revenge, and I’m going to get my revenge on Tim Busfield for not bringing her kids back for the final season.”

Taking nothing away from the seriousness and horrors of the claims, as the APD warrant notes, it was as recently as September 2025, after nearly a year of accusations of tickling and head-kissing of the children by director “Uncle Tim” and no charges from the police, that the matter suddenly became became much more intrusive.

As Officer Brown outlines, the mother of VL and SL contacted the police again to tell them that “on 09/02/2025, SL reported to his counselor that Timothy Busfield touched his penis and bottom.”




To that, not long after the U.S. Marshals were called in last week, Busfield arrived in Albuquerque and turned himself in to authorities on January 13, five days after an arrest warrant was issued for him.

Being held without bond at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center after being arrested and booked, Busfield appeared briefly in Judge Felicia Blea-Rivera’s courtroom remotely on January 14.




In addition to taking swipes at the personal, professional and legal history (father admitted to “conspiracy to commit wire fraud” and was disbarred) of the boys’ parents, tonight’s filing ahead of a pre-trial detention hearing next week contains a slew of letters from his wife Melissa Gilbert, "thirtysomething" showrunner Edward Zwick, Patty Duke’s son MacKenzie Astin, and other fellow actors extolling Busfield’s virtues.

“Timothy is my friend, so no doubt I’m biased,” says "thirtysomething" cast member Ken Olin in a letter included. “But I know him well, through many years and many changing life circumstances, and he has always been a man who cares about other people – old and young. And I know in the very bottom of my heart that Timothy would never do anything to cruelly exploit or harm anyone, let alone a child.”

Fellow castmates Peter Horton and Patricia Wellig Olin, who played Busfield’s wife on the ABC series from 1987-1991, offered similar sentiments.

https://deadline.com/2026/01/timothy...ng-1236685752/

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Timothy Busfield Won't be Jailed before Child Sex Crimes Trial
by Wesley Stenzel
January 20, 2026


Timothy Busfield will not remain in jail before his criminal trial begins.

A judge in Bernalillo County in New Mexico ruled that the actor would not stay in custody prior to the start of his trial on allegations of sexual abuse of a child actor on the set of "The Cleaning Lady".



The judge ordered that Busfield be released under the condition that he has no unsupervised contact with any minors. The actor will be permitted to travel out of New Mexico until the start of his trial, but has been ordered to report to all pretrial services in the state.

The judge also ordered that Busfield refrain from consuming any alcohol or illegal drugs and said that he could not contact the alleged victims or their families.

https://ew.com/timothy-busfield-will...rimes-11889274

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Timothy Busfield Lawyer Slams “Unsound” Child Sex Abuse Indictment By New Mexico DA; “Cannot Be Proven At Trial”
by Dominic Patten
February 6, 2026


Timothy Busfield‘s main lawyer spurned New Mexico prosecutors’ indictment Friday of the child sex abuse claims as being about something other than justice.

“The indictment was not unexpected,” Larry Stein told Deadline after Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman made public the indictment against Busfield. “As the saying goes, a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich. What is deeply concerning is that the District Attorney is choosing to proceed on a case that is fundamentally unsound and cannot be proven at trial.

The detention hearing exposed fatal weaknesses in the State’s evidence — gaps that no amount of charging decisions can cure. This prosecution appears driven by something other than the facts or the law. Mr. Busfield will fight these charges at every stage and looks forward to testing the State’s case in open court — where evidence matters — not behind closed doors.”

https://deadline.com/2026/02/timothy...nt-1236711338/

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Timothy Busfield Pleads Not Guilty, Waives All Pre-Trial Appearances in Child Sex Abuse Case (Exclusive)
by Charna Flam and Sean Mandell
February 21, 2026


Timothy Busfield has pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal sexual contact of a minor and child abuse.

The actor testified before a Bernalillo County grand jury, which indicted him on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor (child under 13) on Feb. 6, the Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman announced at the time.



On Feb. 10, the West Wing actor, 68, pleaded not guilty to the four counts, per a plea entry filed in New Mexico’s Second Judicial District Court viewed by PEOPLE.

On Feb. 11, he waived his arraignment and appearances in court for all pretrial proceedings. Judge Joseph Montano granted the request on Feb. 18.

The initial witness list was issued on Feb. 13. TMZ was the first to report the news. Busfield’s legal team will attend the upcoming hearing, a scheduling conference on March 10 at 8:30 a.m.

https://people.com/timothy-busfield-...-case-11911311