The Upstate New York home of an Emmy Award-winning actor was raided by police on Tuesday after the man was arrested on charges accusing him of sexually abusing a child.
Timothy Busfield, known for his roles in “The West Wing” and “Field of Dreams,” turned himself in Tuesday to police in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was taken into custody five days after a warrant was issued for his arrest for criminal sexual contact of a minor and child abuse.
According to the Associated Press, a criminal complaint accuses Busfield of repeatedly touching a boy who was on the set of “The Cleaning Lady,” a TV series filmed in Albuquerque. At the time of the alleged abuse between November 2022 and the spring of 2024, the boy was 7 to 8 years old.
Shortly after Busfield’s surrender, a squad of officers raided the actor’s home nearly 2,000 miles away in the Catskills.
This handout photo provided by the Albuquerque Police Department shows the booking photo of director/actor Timothy Busfield. The mugshot was taken after Busfield turned himself in to police following accusations of sexual abuse of two children on Jan. 13, 2026, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Photo by Albuquerque Police Department via Getty Images)Getty Images
“Heavily armed” members of the U.S. Marshals Service’s New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force forced open the door of Busfield’s house in Highland Lake, a quiet hamlet in Sullivan County on a private lake, the Daily Mail reported.
Highland Lake is about 15 minutes east of the Pennsylvania border and about 90 minutes southwest of Poughkeepsie.
Photos and a video of the raid posted by the Daily Mail show officers in bulletproof vests and helmets — some holding large guns and riot shields — outside the home Busfield shared with his wife, “Little House on the Prairie” actor Melissa Gilbert.
The officers searched the inside of the house and the backyard, including an RV and outhouse, before leaving, the Daily Mail reported.
In a November 2021 Instagram photo showing himself and his wife outside what appeared to be their Upstate property, Busfield called their Catskills home “heaven.”
In a video provided to TMZ, Busfield said he got in a car on Saturday after learning of the charges against him and drove 2,000 miles to New Mexico. He denied the accusations and vowed he would be exonerated.
“I’m going to confront these lies. They’re horrible. They’re all lies,” he said, looking into the camera. “I did not do anything to those little boys, and I’m gonna fight it.”
Busfield has been charged with two counts of third-degree criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse, according to Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center’s inmate records. As of late Wednesday morning, the 68-year-old actor remained in custody.
The investigation started in November 2024 when the boy and his brother were brought to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, the Associated Press reported. When interviewed by police last fall, Busfield denied the abuse, the newspaper said.