New Mexico

CYFD launches new center to keep foster kids from sleeping in offices

Published

2 years ago

June 13, 2024

CYFD launches new center to keep foster kids from sleeping in offices

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Foster teens sleeping overnight in office buildings: it’s a problem the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) has promised to fix, as it struggles to find foster families. Now, the department is opening up what it calls a solution. KRQE News 13 spoke with CYFD about those plans and others who feel its not enough.

“It’s been a long year for me since I came onboard a year ago, in really trying to restructure the agency,” said Teresa Casados, cabinet secretary for CYFD. One of the problems CYFD has dealt with as the state faces a lack of foster families surrounds kids and teens staying overnight in their offices—where conflicts between workers and foster children have escalated to the point of 9-1-1 calls.

The situation—highlighted in a KRQE Investigates report—has been hard to fix according to Casados, who says the agency has had little luck signing up new foster parents.

“From the 124 events that I think we’ve had, we had 19 people that actually engaged with us after those events,” Casados said. Despite low interest, the department’s been working to get kids out of CYFD’s offices in a different way: a new multipurpose home for boys aged 12 and up in Albuquerque.

“It’s a CYFD facility that we have. It used to be the Girl’s Reintegration Center, and we’ve made some upgrades to that location. AMI Kids is operating that for us,” Casados said.

The facility has four bedrooms with three beds to a room, a classroom, and an outdoor recreation area. Staff includes a chef, a nurse, and therapists onsite. Casados says they have partnerships with a charter school and a local community college to do online school and have a tutor onsite. They also have a partnership with Workforce Solutions.

“It’s really about normalcy for those kids and providing them the environment that will prepare them for you know, life. Some of these are older youth. They’re 15, 16, 17 years old,” Casados said.

“We’re still continuing to look for placement, but if they end up going into Fostering Connections or transitional living for youth, we want to make sure they’re prepared and have the skills to be successful,” Casados said.

So far, five kids are living there. The facility has the capacity for 12, and Casados hopes to have the rest of the boys living in the offices transition to the center by month’s end.

However, some advocates aren’t thrilled with the venture, saying the state has other obligations it still needs to meet. Jesse Clifton, an attorney with Disability Rights New Mexico, says CYFD has already settled a lawsuit in 2020 that highlighted the overuse of congregate care.

“The allegations of that lawsuit in general terms alleged that children who have been subject to abuse and neglect and had been brought into the custody of the state of New Mexico were further subjected to more abuse and neglect as opposed to updating the resources and supports they needed to thrive,” Clifton said.

“The lawsuit aimed at total system reform, and the lawsuit was brought in 2018 and it settled in 2020 with the state agreeing that the child welfare system in New Mexico was in need of pretty total reform,” Clifton said, “Those have overwhelmingly been disappointing progress reports as there’s much of the settlement that has yet to be satisfied and many of the deadlines have passed.”

He says prior to the lawsuit, children were inappropriately housed in group care: “Everyone has always agreed, I mean from the time of the settlement agreement to the corrective action plan which was as recent as last year—children belong in family homes. That’s the goal.”

Clifton says the new center doesn’t align with that goal. “That term multi-service home, multipurpose home, is a little bit of a misnomer because for all of its amenities is not a family home. It’s still congregate care and so we just have to keep those realities in mind,” Clifton said, “While this is movement of some kind, it’s not the movement that was agreed to and it’s not again the solution. This is more of a band-aid than a solution.”

Casados says the goal here is ending the office stays: “I think this is the better of those two situations, but our goal really is to make sure we can get those kids into permanent placement in a family-like setting…You know locations like this, you know multiservice homes are not ideal and there will be some people that don’t think this is the best course of action for us to take. We just want to make sure we’re meeting the needs of the kids.”

CYFD is also working to create a similar home for girls in Albuquerque who are currently staying in their offices.

CYFD emphasizes: they are looking for people to become foster parents to help with this issue. “Any help that we can get in encouraging individuals across the state to become foster families or even to give it a try if they want to be a respite family and try that slowly, we’d love to have a conversation with them about that,” Casados said.

For more information on becoming a foster parent, head to CYFD’s website here.

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New Mexico

Body of Albuquerque city councilor’s brother found

Published

5 hours ago

January 12, 2026

Press Room

Body of Albuquerque city councilor’s brother found

MOUNTAINAIR, N.M. (KRQE) – The missing family member of an Albuquerque city councilor has been found dead. The town of Mountainair announced on Saturday via Facebook that the body of Albert Peña, the brother-in-law of City Councilor Klarissa Peña, has been found.

Albert Peña went missing on December 30. Police are looking into Peña’s death as a homicide. Anyone with information about this disappearance and death is asked to contact Mountainair police.

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New Mexico

‘West Wing’ actor Timothy Busfield accused of child sex abuse in New Mexico

Published

17 hours ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

‘West Wing’ actor Timothy Busfield accused of child sex abuse in New Mexico

New Mexico authorities have accused Emmy-winning actor Timothy Busfield, known for series “The West Wing” and “Thirtysomething,” of child sex abuse.

A judge on Friday issued an arrest warrant for the 68-year-old actor on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and a single count of child abuse. The arrest warrant affidavit, reviewed by The Times on Sunday, accuses Busfield of inappropriately touching two child actors, who are brothers, during his tenure on the Fox crime drama “The Cleaning Lady.”

“The health and safety of our cast and crew is always our top priority, especially the safety of minors on our productions,” Fox and Warner Bros. Television said in a statement shared Sunday. “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.”

Busfield, who was an actor, producer and director for “The Cleaning Lady,” allegedly sexually assaulted of one of the young actors multiple times during his tenure. According to the affidavit, one child actor said Busfield first touched his “‘private areas’” multiple times on set when he was 7 years old. The actor said that when he was 8 years old, Busfield touched him inappropriately again several times. He was “afraid to tell anyone because Tim was the Director, and he feared Tim would get mad at him,” the affidavit said.

The second child actor said that Busfield “started touching them for the first two years” of his time on “The Cleaning Lady,” which filmed in Albuquerque, according to the complaint. The investigator said both children said they did not speak out about their alleged encounters with Busfield out of fear or concern for him.

The actors’ mother, per the complaint, reported the alleged abuse to Child Protective Services in October 2025, claiming that Busfield sexually abused her children from November 2022 to spring 2024. Police began investigating the alleged abuse in November 2024 after receiving a request from a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital.

According to the affidavit, the investigation also included interviews with the children’s therapists and doctors. One of the child actors, who disclosed the alleged abuse by Busfield to his therapist, has issues with bed-wetting “along with other behavior issues,” was diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety and has suffered nightmares “about the director touching him,” according to the complaint.

The investigator also spoke to numerous cast and crew members of “The Cleaning Lady,” which was canceled in June after four seasons. The affidavit details the investigator’s conversations with production assistants, the studio teacher and Busfield.

Busfield, married to actor Melissa Gilbert, told the investigator that “Cleaning Lady” producer Warner Bros. Television notified him in the spring of 2025 of an investigation regarding complaints “about him from the boys.” When asked whether he had any physical contact with the two child actors, Busfield “said it was highly likely that he would have,” the complaint said. He suggested to the investigator that the boys’ mother might have sought “revenge” on the director for “not bringing her kids back for the final season,” according to the complaint.

Though Busfield confirmed the identities of the young actors to the investigator in his interview, he allegedly said later, “ ‘I don’t remember those boys’ ” and “ ‘I don’t remember overtly tickling the boys ever, but it wouldn’t be uncommon for me.’ ”

The complaint also details Warner Bros.’ investigation into Busfield’s alleged behavior. The studio started its investigation after receiving an anonymous tip in February 2025 from the SAG-AFTRA hotline regarding a December 2024 incident. Busfield allegedly entered the hair and makeup trailer and “kissed a minor male on the face as the minor was getting a haircut.” The complaint further alleged “there are pictures of Mr. Busfield, ‘tickling and caressing the head and body of minor boys.’ ”

Neither Fox or Warner Bros. immediately responded to a request for comment on Sunday, but a spokesperson for the latter told the New York Times it is “aware of the current charges against Mr. Busfield and have been and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement.”

Busfield received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Elliot Weston in the ABC drama “Thirtysomething” in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. He also appeared in “Field of Dreams,” “Little Big League,” “The Byrds of Paradise” and other titles. He is perhaps best known for his recurring role in “The West Wing” as Danny Concannon, a White House correspondent who strikes up a relationship with Press Secretary C.J. Clegg, played by Allison Janney.

In addition to television and film, Busfield is a stage actor and director. In 1991, Busfield and his brother Buck Busfield created the B Street Theatre, a nonprofit theater in Sacramento that first began as a touring theater group for children. He also pitched for baseball team the Sacramento Smokeys and was inducted into the Sacramento Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024.

Prior to the allegations from his time on “The Cleaning Lady,” Busfield was accused in 1994 of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old actor who appeared on “Little Big League.” He denied those claims and sued his accuser for defamation. The case ended in a settlement, with a judge ordering Busfield to pay the woman $150,000.

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