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Timothy Busfield has turned himself in to police in New Mexico, four days after an arrest warrant was issued against him.
The 68-year-old Emmy-winning actor and director faces two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and one count of child abuse, stemming from allegations that he abused 11-year-old twin boys on a film set.
Busfield was booked Tuesday afternoon at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County, according to jail records per the Associated Press. His surrender came just hours after the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed it was assisting local police in locating him.
Busfield’s attorney, Larry Stein, said his client turned himself in voluntarily in order to “clear his name and reputation.”
The U.S. Marshals Service is assisting the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) in locating Timothy Busfield after an arrest warrant was issued alleging sexual crimes involving minors.
“He didn’t do anything wrong. These accusations are false,” Stein said, adding that bail will not be an option for Busfield.
According to the arrest warrant obtained by PEOPLE, APD Officer Marvin Brown alleges that Busfield engaged in unlawful sexual conduct with 11-year-old twin boys, whose identities have not been made public. One of the children told investigators the alleged abuse began when he was 7 years old.
Busfield is married to Melissa Gilbert, best known for Little House on the Prairie. Busfield previously starred on The West Wing and has also worked extensively as a television director.
The investigation reportedly began in November 2024, after a doctor at University of New Mexico Hospital contacted police about possible sexual abuse. The children’s parents told investigators that their sons were child actors who met Busfield while working on the FOX series The Cleaning Lady, where Busfield served as a director. The show aired from January 2022 through June 2025.
The parents said medical professionals suggested the boys may have been groomed, but authorities later determined the case did not meet the criteria for further action at that time.
In October 2025, the boys’ mother filed a new police report and notified Child Protective Services, stating that both children disclosed sexual abuse by Busfield dating from November 2022 through spring 2024. According to the warrant, she was told that because there was no physical abuse, the case could not proceed.
During the investigation, Busfield allegedly told police that the parents were upset after their sons were replaced by a younger actor, according to the warrant. Shortly afterward, he reportedly received a call from Warner Bros. informing him that a complaint was under internal review.
The allegations remain under investigation.
Per the New York Post, comments Melissa Gilbert previously made condemning child sexual abuse have resurfaced following the issuance of an arrest warrant for her husband, Timothy Busfield, in connection with alleged child sex abuse charges.
The Little House on the Prairie alum Melissa Gilbert, 61, spoke out on Instagram in November while addressing comments made by Megyn Kelly about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In her post, Gilbert reflected on her own experience as a teenager in Hollywood, saying that when she was 15, she felt pressured to “fall in love with and kiss” her adult co-star Dean Butler, who was eight years older than her at the time.
Butler, now 69, played Almanzo Wilder on the series, the love interest — and later husband — of Gilbert’s character, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Gilbert has previously spoken about how difficult it was to navigate those scenes at such a young age while working in a professional television environment.
“I am actually nauseated,” Gilbert wrote in a now deleted Instagram post. “The girl on vacation in Hawaii with her family, is the same girl who was expected to ‘fall in love with’ and kiss a man on film who was several years older than she was.”
“Looking at it through today’s lens, it’s shocking,” she wrote. “I have no words other than to say, ‘I was a child. I was fifteen.’ And I was treated as the ‘good news.’”
She added that adults on the NBC set believed they were keeping her safe, saying she felt fortunate in some ways — while also acknowledging that many other young women were not afforded the same protections.
