A New Mexico grand jury indicted actor Timothy Busfield on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office said Friday. The case is expected to move forward to trial and will be prosecuted by the office’s Special Victims Unit.
An arrest warrant was issued in January after an investigator with the Albuquerque Police Department filed a criminal complaint saying a child reported Busfield touched him inappropriately multiple times on the set of the series The Cleaning Lady when the boy was 7 and 8 years old. The child told investigators he was scared to report the alleged abuse because he feared Busfield would get mad at him.
Busfield’s attorney, Stanton “Larry” Stein, said the indictment was not unexpected and that Busfield will fight the charges. “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,” Stein said, adding that a detention hearing exposed what he described as fatal weaknesses in the state’s evidence.
The complaint alleges the abuse occurred between November 2022 and spring 2024 and was reported after the boy’s mother took the children to a hospital on the advice of a lawyer. The boy’s twin brother also told authorities he was touched by Busfield but did not specify where, and said he feared getting in trouble for reporting it.
Warner Bros., producer of The Cleaning Lady, conducted an internal investigation but said it could not corroborate the allegations. In an interview with police last fall, Busfield said the boys’ mother was seeking revenge after the twins were replaced on the show and said he would likely have picked up and tickled the boys while on set, describing the environment as playful.
On Jan. 13, Busfield turned himself in and was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County on a child sex abuse charge. He denied the allegations in a video provided to TMZ.
That same day, court filings show another allegation was reported to law enforcement: the father of a then-16-year-old girl alleged Busfield kissed and inappropriately touched the girl while she auditioned at a California theater Busfield co-founded. The documents say Busfield begged the family not to report the incident if he received therapy, and that the girl’s father agreed; the alleged incident occurred several years ago.
Busfield was initially held without bond and was released pending trial in late January. The district attorney’s office did not provide further details about the charges.
Busfield is known for roles in The West Wing, Field of Dreams and Thirtysomething, for which he won an Emmy in 1991. He is married to actor Melissa Gilbert, who deactivated her Instagram amid the allegations and, through a publicist, said she will not comment at the request of Busfield’s attorneys while the legal process continues.