U.S. Marshals Help in Timothy Busfield’s Arrest Over New Mexico Child Abuse Charges
EXCLUSIVE: Federal authorities are pursuing an arrest warrant for Timothy Busfield on child sex abuse charges stemming from New Mexico.
Busfield was charged on January 9 with two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and child abuse.
The allegations involve two brothers, born in 2014, who participated in Fox’s now-canceled The Cleaning Lady. Busfield directed several episodes and served as an executive producer on the series. One of the boys, identified as SL, told APD Officer Marvin Brown that Busfield had inappropriately touched him on multiple occasions, claiming the actor masked it as play.
The alleged misconduct was first disclosed by the children’s parents last fall, who had sought advice from at least one local law firm. The inappropriate behavior reportedly began when SL was just seven years old.
At 68, Busfield has faced accusations in the past but was never charged in two previous sexual assault allegations in 1994 and 2012. If found guilty of the current charges, he could face a substantial prison sentence, as New Mexico law imposes harsher penalties for sex crimes involving minors under 13.
Officer Brown noted in the arrest warrant that “pedophiles often infiltrate families under a trusted role, like Timothy, who, as a producer, exploited the hectic film sets.” However, Busfield has suggested that the allegations may stem from a different motivation. In a November 3, 2025 phone interview with Officer Brown, Busfield claimed that Elodie Young, the lead actress of The Cleaning Lady, informed him that SL and VL’s mother sought revenge for not bringing her children back for the series’ final season.
Earlier in 2025, Cleaning Lady producers at Warner Bros TV initiated an investigation into Busfield’s conduct on set, prompted by an anonymous complaint to a SAG-AFTRA hotline. The complaint described Busfield as engaging in behavior such as “tickling and caressing the head and body of minor boys.” Officer Brown remarked in the warrant that the investigator, Christina McGovern, could not find anyone to corroborate the claims against Busfield.
As Busfield’s arrest becomes imminent, NBC has opted to pull a January 15 episode of Law & Order: SVU featuring him in a guest role as a judge. The network plans to expedite the airing of an episode originally scheduled for January 22.
