An arrest warrant has been issued for actor Timothy Busfield for allegedly inappropriately touching a minor on a TV show set.
The Emmy-award winning actor, 68, is best known for his roles in The West Wing and Field of Dreams, and has been married to Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert since 2013.
Busfield is facing two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse.
According to a warrant for his arrest, an investigation into Busfield was opened in November 2024 when staff at the University of New Mexico Hospital called police and reported children potentially being groomed on the set of the TV show ‘The Cleaning Lady’, which Busfield directs.
An officer reportedly spoke with the parents of two child actors on the set of the show, who said that the actor had ‘grown closer to the boys’ during their time together, per a criminal complaint filed last week in New Mexico.
Busfield allegedly told the children ‘to call him ‘Uncle Tim’ and would tickle them on the stomach and legs, despite them not liking the tickling’, according to the criminal complaint.
The criminal complaint alleged that one of the children then said Busfield touched him in his ‘private areas’ while on the set when he was seven years old, reports KRQE.
An arrest warrant has been issued for actor Timothy Busfield for allegedly inappropriately touching a minor on a TV show set. He is pictured in June 2023 with his wife, Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert
Busfield (pictured with Gilbert in 2019) is being sought by cops and is facing two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse
Busfield pictured starring as character Danny Concannon on hit TV show The West Wing
A warrant has been issued for Busfield’s arrest in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, and no court or jail records indicate he has been taken into custody.
According to a complaint filed in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court, the alleged abuse occurred between November 2022 and spring 2024.
At least one of the children in the case was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder following the alleged abuse, according to the complaint.
Busfield has been married to Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert since 2013.
Gilbert shot to fame as a child in the 1960s, and went on to become one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood, including serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 2001 to 2005.
Following a stint on Dancing with the Stars in 2012, Gilbert ran for Congress in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District three years later, but after becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee she dropped out of the race, citing health issues.
The pair celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary in April 2025, and Gilbert said in a social media post at the time that their marriage was ‘perfect.’
’12 years of true partnership, love, laughter, compassion, commitment, passion, laughter, cooking, kids, grandchildren, chickens, dogs, creating homes, films, plays, television. 12 years of writing together, traveling, cuddling, delicious meals, romantic getaways, spooning, reflecting, meditating, praying,’ she wrote.
Busfield has been married to Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert since 2013
Busfield and Gilbert wed soon after they started dating, as the Little House on the Prairie star described their relationship as ‘perfect’
Gilbert told PEOPLE that they tied the knot soon after beginning their relationship, saying that ‘it just seemed right and inevitable’ that she would marry Busfield after their first date.
‘It sounds cliché to say it, but it really was like getting hit with a thunderbolt,’ she said. ‘The next morning when I woke up, my first thought was, ‘I’m going to marry him,’ and then my next thought was, ‘You’re a crazy person.”
Gilbert said her relationship with Busfield was ‘the easiest’ she had ever been in.
‘It’s all of the good things that a relationship should be,’ she said.
‘There is rarely drama, and if there is drama, it’s not caused by us. It comes from outside, and we handle it in a much different way.’
She described their relationship last year: ‘We have respect for one another’s opinions, respect for one another’s pasts, respect for one another’s abilities and this tacit agreement that we never really discussed that just happened, that we are partners in everything, in every decision, in every idea, in every move.
‘We are one in making those decisions, and neither one of us is better at anything than the other or greater than anything than the other.’
