top of page

Tim Busfield was indicted on child sex abuse. Now four women say he abused them.

  • 3 minutes ago
  • 3 min read
At least four women have told police that the Emmy-award winning actor and director Timothy Busfield groped their breasts and genitals, and forced himself on them, dating from 1993 to 2000. One was a 16-year-old community theater intern when she said Busfield pushed his hand into her pants and his tongue into her mouth.
At least four women have told police that the Emmy-award winning actor and director Timothy Busfield groped their breasts and genitals, and forced himself on them, dating from 1993 to 2000. One was a 16-year-old community theater intern when she said Busfield pushed his hand into her pants and his tongue into her mouth.

The women came forward after Busfield was arrested on suspicion of child sex abuse on January 13. The women shared their stories with an Albuquerque police detective in January according to six video interviews with the women that USA TODAY obtained from the Second Judicial District Court in New Mexico under a public records request.

A grand jury indicted Busfield on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child on February 6. A trial date has been set for May 2027 in New Mexico.

Busfield, 68, is best known for his roles in “The West Wing” and “Thirtysomething.” He has denied the charges.

Larry Stein, a civil attorney representing Busfield, told USA TODAY that these allegations aren't relevant to the boys' case. "I will not waste my time nor the public's commenting on 30-year-old unproven allegations with adult women," he said. “I don’t want to focus everyone's attention on the irrelevant facts of these women. And I don’t want to say anything negative about them. They are unproven allegations. They aren’t relevant to this case."

Instead, Stein says the case is about two boys who denied abuse and a year and a half later, after prodding from their father, said they were abused.

"Every single witnesses denies that it happened or could have happened. There is nobody that says they observed him doing anything inappropriate. Every single witness who was there has said he did absolutely nothing wrong and he couldn’t have done anything wrong," Stein said. "He’s worked with 100s of children over his career. And none of them have ever said he did anything."

At least two of the women told police that when they refused Busfield’s advances, he told them their future in the film industry was limited. One, then a 20-year-old apprentice at a Sacramento theater, said Busfield would often whisper in her ear, “You don't belong in this business. You have no talent.”

2Overly enthusiastic

2

Start Playing Now

One told police that Busfield and his wife, the actress Melissa Gilbert, encouraged her to do drugs with them.

Busfield is accused of abusing twin boys on the set of “The Cleaning Lady” when they were seven and eight years old. The crime thriller, mostly shot in an Albuquerque studio, followed a surgeon in the Philippines who comes to the U.S. for her son’s medical treatment and winds up working as a cleaner for the mob.

The boys’ attorney said that their refusal of Busfield’s advances got them fired from the show, according to a court document filed by Busfield's defense team.

Busfield’s attorney said in a court hearing on January 20 that the boys’ parents were angry that their children were dropped from the TV series after three seasons. The parents, Busfield’s attorneys say, were so dependent on their boys’ salaries – about $2 million over three seasons – that they manufactured the abuse and manipulated their children to tell the lie.

The women say they contacted police to share their stories because they say what Busfield is accused of with the boys feels familiar.

He was charismatic. He was well liked.

He abused them on set, in a trailer or while working, they told police.

Some were afraid to tell anyone. Others say they did, but nothing was done.

“I've been telling this story my whole life because it's affected me and I wanted people to know about it. I just haven't gotten to tell it to police officers because I was too old at the point where I thought that anyone would take me seriously,” one of the women told Albuquerque Police Detective Marvin Brown in a recorded interview on January 15.


 
 
 

Comments


1/507

LATEST NEWS​​

bottom of page