The actor and director is facing two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse.

Timothy Busfield turns himself in to police and denies child sex abuse allegations

The actor and director is facing two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse.

By Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on *Entertainment Tonight* and Popsugar.

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on January 13, 2026 3:45 p.m. ET

Timothy Busfield in 2020. Credit:

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty

Actor and director Timothy Busfield has surrendered to the New Mexico police after an arrest warrant was issued for the 68-year-old, alleging that he engaged in unlawful sexual conduct with 11-year-old twin boys.

The actor, best known for his role as Danny Concannon on *The West Wing*, surrendered to police on Tuesday, the Albuquerque Police Department confirmed to **.

“Timothy Busfield has turned himself in at the Metro Detention Center," Gilbert Gallegos, director of communications of the APD, said. "He will be booked on his warrant.”

TMZ was the first to report the surrender. In a video obtained by the outlet, Busfield claims that he is currently in Albuquerque after driving "2,000 miles" after getting "the call" about the warrant on Friday.

"I'm going to confront these lies," the husband of *Little House on the Prairie* star Melissa Gilbert continued. "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."

Timothy Busfield in 2020.

Steven Ferdman/Getty

Busfield, who said that he only recently secured a lawyer, added, "I know I am because this is all so wrong, and all lies. So hang in there, and hopefully I'm out real soon, and back to working. I love everybody for supporting me, thank you."

The APD worked with the U.S. Marshals Service to locate and arrest Busfield after issuing the warrant on Friday.

In the warrant obtained and reviewed by EW, an investigation into Busfield began in November 2024, after a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) alerted police about alleged sexual abuse. The victims' parents told APD Officer Marvin Brown that the 11-year-old twin boys were child actors who met Busfield on the set of FOX's now-canceled series, *The Cleaning Lady*, on which he directed several episodes and served as an executive producer, the warrant said.

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The warrant says that Brown had a phone interview with Busfield — who is married to *Little House on the Prairie* star Melissa Gilbert — in November 2025, during which the actor claimed that his *Cleaning Lady* costar Elodie Yung told him over a year ago 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," per the warrant.

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Brown noted in the warrant that after Warner Bros. launched an investigation into Busfield's behavior on the Albuquerque set over an anonymous SAG-AFTRA hotline complaint, the investigator hired for the independent investigation conducted by an outside law firm allegedly "was not able to talk with anyone who would support evidence that Timothy Busfield engaged in this behavior."

Busfield faced two prior accusations of sexual assault, the warrant alleged, neither of which resulted in a criminal charge: one from a 17-year-old extra in 1994 who ultimately settled a lawsuit against the actor, and the other from a 28-year-old woman who accused him of groping her, whose case was never prosecuted due to "slim evidence."

Timothy Busfield and Melissa Gilbert in 2020.

Lars Niki/Getty

If found guilty of the alleged child abuse, Busfield could face three to many more years in state prison. Under New Mexico's statutes, sentencing time and felony class can go up significantly in sex crimes if the crime involves children under 13 years of age — as it allegedly does in this case.

*If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.***

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