Emmy-winning actor Timothy Busfield will appear in court on Tuesday for a hearing to determine whether he will remain in a New Mexico jail or be released pending trial on child sex abuse charges.
Busfield, 68, turned himself in last week after he was charged with one count of child abuse and two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman said in a Jan. 13 statement on Facebook. He said at the time that his office would seek to have Busfield detained pending the case.
A representative for Busfield’s wife, actor Melissa Gilbert, told NBC News that Gilbert will attend Tuesday’s detention hearing.
In a letter of support for her husband filed in court, Gilbert wrote that Busfield “has the strongest moral compass of any human I have ever known.”
“He has dedicated his spiritual self to always being of service to others. He starts every day with kindness and compassion,” she said.
Gilbert talked about his dedication to his family and his career and asked the judge to “please, please, take care of my sweet husband.”
“As he is my protector, I am his, but I cannot protect him now and I think that, more than anything else, is what is truly breaking my heart,” she wrote. “I am relying on you to protect him for me.”
According to a criminal complaint, the charges stem from allegations from the parents of two young boys who appeared on “The Cleaning Lady,” a TV series in which Busfield acted and directed. The parents accused the actor of allegedly touching the children on multiple occasions on the set of the Fox series, and the boys reported that he had touched them on their intimate parts.
An attorney for Busfield has denied the allegations and said his client wanted “to clear his name and reputation.”
“He didn’t do anything wrong,” attorney Larry Stein said. “These accusations are false, as the investigator from the independent law firm found.”
In Busfield’s supplemental pretrial detention hearing exhibit list submitted Monday, the defense included an affidavit of a woman who worked on set, who said she never saw Busfield be inappropriate while filming. The defense also included audio recordings of the children’s interviews with Albuquerque police in which they allegedly deny that he ever inappropriately touched them.
Busfield told investigators in an interview that another actor on the show told him the boys’ mother was upset with him because her children were not brought back for the show’s final season. Busfield alleged that the mother wanted revenge, according to a transcript of the interview.
According to the complaint, one of the boys told police that the first time Busfield touched him was when he was 7 years old and the second time was when he was 8. The complaint says the abuse is alleged to have happened between November 2022 and spring 2024.
Warner Bros. commissioned a law firm to conduct an independent investigation into the complaints, but the firm found no evidence to corroborate the claims. The claims included allegations that Busfield kissed a child on the face as he was getting a haircut in the hair and makeup trailer.
Christina McGovern, the investigator from Solomon Law who led the Warner Bros. probe, said in a statement that, based on the evidence gathered, she found no evidence that he “engaged in inappropriate conduct or that he was ever alone with the twins on set.”
“The Cleaning Lady” ended last year after airing for four seasons. Busfield is also known for appearances in “The West Wing,” “Thirtysomething” and “Field of Dreams.” He was set to appear in the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios film “You Deserve Each Other,” but will be removed via editing, a source close to the production told NBC News.
Busfield also faces an allegation of sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl in California. He has not been criminally charged in connection with that allegation. The girl’s father alleged that Busfield kissed the teen and touched her intimate parts “several years ago,” according to a court filing seeking Busfield’s detainment. Busfield “begged the family” to hold off on reporting the alleged incident if he got therapy, the filing stated.
In a copy of Busfield’s supplemental pretrial detention hearing exhibit list, a man who claims to know the teen and her father provided statements that “contradict the narrative advanced by that witness.”
Alexandra Detwiler and Meriam Bouarrouj contributed.