On Tuesday, four days after New Mexico authorities issued an arrest warrant for Timothy Busfield, the West Wing actor reportedly turned himself in to face child sex-abuse charges. Busfield has been accused of inappropriately touching two young boys on the set of The Cleaning Lady, a TV show he directed from 2022 to 2025.
New Mexico state court records viewed by The Cut indicate that Busfield faces two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse. Busfield allegedly touched the child actor on private areas over his clothing three or four times when he was 7, and five or six times when he was 8, per a complaint obtained by the Associated Press, which says he was afraid to tell anyone due to Busfield being the show’s director.
The boy’s twin brother also reportedly said he was touched inappropriately by Busfield. The mother of the twins — who are identified by their initials in the complaint — apparently later reported the alleged abuse to Child Protective Services, saying it occurred between November 2022 and spring 2024.
Busfield was booked into jail Tuesday after surrendering to authorities, according to jail records. In a statement to The Cut, his attorney, Stanton Stein, called the twins’ allegations “false and deeply troubling,” saying Busfield “is innocent and is determined to clear his name.” Stein claimed the boys’ mother is seeking “revenge” against Busfield after the boys were not brought back for the show’s final season. Busfield’s wife, actor Melissa Gilbert, said in a statement that she “stands with and supports her husband” but is “honoring the request of Tim’s lawyers not to speak publicly while the legal process unfolds.”
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In a motion for pretrial detention on Wednesday, per ABC, another allegation against Busfield emerged. According to the court filing, Busfield allegedly kissed a 16-year-old girl and “put his hands down her pants and touched her privates” during an audition “several years ago.” Busfield allegedly “begged the family to not report to law enforcement if he received therapy,” and the father, who was a therapist, apparently agreed at the time. On Tuesday, per the court filing, he contacted police about the incident.
This isn’t the first time Busfield has faced sexual-abuse allegations. In 1996, he was ordered to pay a $150,000 settlement after he was accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl who’d been an extra in the movie Little Big League, which Busfield directed, per People. In 2012, a woman accused him of groping her at a movie theater, though the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office declined to pursue charges in the case, per E! News.
On Wednesday, a rep for Busfield’s agency, Innovative Artists, confirmed to Deadline he’d been dropped as a client.
