An upcoming episode featuring Timothy Busfield as a guest star on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has been pulled following an investigation over allegations of child sex abuse.
The actor, best known for playing Danny Concannon on several seasons of hit TV show The West Wing, faces two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse, according to the warrant.
It’s been alleged that he engaged in unlawful sexual conduct with two male child actors, whose identities have been withheld to protect them.
On Monday, the SVU episode originally slated to air on January 15, which featured Busfield, will be replaced with next week’s episode, according toPeople.
According to documents issued by the Albuquerque Police Department in New Mexico, obtained by Variety and seen by Metro, one of the alleged victims was just seven years old when he claimed the abuse began.
Busfield surrendered himself to police in New Mexico on Tuesday, January 13.
In a video interview with TMZ, the actor denied the allegations against him.
‘I will confront these lies,’ he said. ‘I did not do anything to those little boys.’
He continued by saying that he was ordered to come to Albuquerque, and that he had come of his own volition.
‘I got the call Friday night, I had to get a lawyer, and on Saturday I got a car and drove 2,000 miles to Albuquerque.’
Busfield called the allegations ‘horrible lies’ and said he would fight the charges
The affidavit reveals that an investigation was opened on 1 November, 2024, after a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) alerted police that the boys showed signs of being ‘groomed’.
The victims’ parents then told officer Marvin Kirk Brown, who issued the arrest warrant, that the children had met the 68-year-old star on the set of The Cleaning Lady, where Busfield – who also starred in the movie Field of Dreams and the TV series Thirtysomething – was a director.
The children’s parents claimed Busfield ‘grew closer to the boys’ when he joined the Fox and Warner Bros TV drama, which ran from January 2022 until June last year.
The warrant alleged that it was reported Busfield, whose third wife is Little House on the Prairie actress Melissa Gilbert, would tell the kids ‘to call him “Uncle Tim”’.
It also added that while the children hadn’t disclosed sexual contact at that time, both claimed Busfield ‘would tickle them on the stomach and legs’.
But last autumn, as per the arrest warrant, one of the boys claimed to a forensic child interviewer that he had in fact been touched inappropriately by Busfield, ‘including his “poop” and “pee” area, over the clothing, five to six times’.
Subsequently, a therapist had diagnosed him with moderate post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety at the age of 10, following these claims, with the police document reporting how he had allegedly had ‘nightmares about the director touching him and waking up scared’.
It also included a claim from the boy that Busfield ‘had touched and rubbed his penis three or four times and appeared to be ashamed’.
The warrant also reports that the boy told authorities he didn’t come forward initially with full details ‘because he did not want to be mean to’ Busfield and feared that, as the director, Busfield ‘would get mad at him’.
He also said within that he was ‘very afraid of Tim and was relieved when he was off set’.
But actor-and-director Busfield then told police that the boys’ parents ‘had a problem’ with the fact they hadn’t been invited back for the TV show’s next season, as is noted in the warrant.
Afterwards, he said he received a call informing him Warner Bros. was investigating a complaint.
He also claimed to the investigating officer in the document that an actress on the show told him that the mother ‘wanted revenge’.
Asked by police if he had ever picked up or tickled the boys, Busfield admitted, per the warrant, that it was ‘highly likely that he would have’ because he wanted ‘a playful environment’.
According to the warrant, Busfield initially added of touching on set: ‘It’s not allowed at all. There is no, there’s no protocol. I mean, I’m always around people, right? It would be, you know, in front of the parents.’
He also said, as per the document, that meant ‘there would never be a weird moment about it’.
But he later stated to Officer Brown that he ‘[didn’t] remember overtly tickling the boys ever, but it wouldn’t be uncommon for me’.
He also told Officer Brown, per the warrant, that he and his wife ‘had a relationship’ with the two boys and family ‘outside of work’, having bought them Christmas gifts and been together at several social functions.
During the investigation, the document notes, a production assistant also alleged that the boy who claimed Busfield touched him on his ‘private areas’ would be unsupervised, claiming that his teacher on set didn’t keep track of him, which notably lead to an incident where he rode a skateboard through a live set.
The investigating officer wrote in the warrant for Busfield’s arrest, as seen by Metro: ‘In my training and experience, paedophiles often infiltrate families under a trusted role, like Timothy, who, as a producer, exploited the hectic film sets to tickle and touch [the boy] on his penis and buttocks, masking it as play.
‘He would invite the family to off-set gatherings, with his wife buying Christmas gifts to foster closeness, making [the boy] feel special and dependent – classic grooming to erode boundaries, isolate the victim, and silence suspicions by blending abuse into normalcy.
‘This dual tactic, charming parents while secretly violating the child, builds a web of complicity that is hard to unravel, delaying detection, as families trust the abuser’s facade.’
Metro has reached out to Busfield’s legal team and personal representatives for comment.
In a statement to Metro, WBTV said on behalf of its production: ‘The health and safety of our cast and crew is always our top priority, especially the safety of minors on our productions.
‘We take all allegations of misconduct very seriously and have systems in place to promptly and thoroughly investigate, and when needed, take appropriate action. We are aware of the current charges against Mr. Busfield and have been and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement.’
An acclaimed actor, Busfield also appeared in M*A*S*H spin-off show Trapper John, M.D. as the titular character’s son in the 1980s before appearing in films Quiz Show and Little Big League the following decade.
He also led the Broadway cast of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, before later appearing in the writer’s TV series Sports Night, The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – for which he also directed episodes.
Busfield also had the lead role of Henry Roswell in US legal drama For Life, which ran from 2020-2021, and appeared in Citadel for Amazon Prime Video opposite Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra.
He is also due to appear in upcoming rom-com You Deserve Each Other with Penn Badgley and Meghann Fahy.
Metro has contacted Busfield’s reps for comment.
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