Courtesy of Fox
New Mexico
Timothy Busfield Charged With Child Sex Abuse On ‘The Cleaning Lady’s New Mexico Set; WBTV Will “Cooperate With Law Enforcement”
A 10-year-old New Mexico boy says Timothy Busfield “touched his ‘poop’ and ‘pee’ area” during production on The Cleaning Lady, an Albuquerque District Attorney–approved arrest warrant issued today says.
“In my training and experience, pedophiles often infiltrate families under a trusted role, like Timothy, who, as a producer, exploited the hectic film sets to tickle and touch SL on his penis and buttocks, masking it as play,” the warrant from Albuquerque Police Officer Marvin Brown asserts. “He would invite the family to off-set gatherings, with his wife buying Christmas gifts to foster closeness, making SL feel special and dependent—classic grooming to erode boundaries, isolate the victim, and silence suspicions by blending abuse into normalcy.”
Filled with accounts from two brothers of their alleged repeated experiences with the Thirtysomething alum, who was a director on the now shuttered Élodie Yung-led Fox drama from Warner Bros TV, the document charges Busfield with two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and child abuse. It is unclear at this point if the Emmy winner has been arrested and booked by Albuquerque Police Department.
If found guilty of the charges, Busfield could face a minimum of three years behind bars.
In fact, the 68-year-old, who was accused but never charged in two previous sexual assault allegations in 1994 and 2012, could be looking at a lot longer sentence in the Land of Enchantment.
Under New Mexico statutes, prison time in sex crimes against minors leans heavily on context and circumstances in the degrees of punishment they hand out. That time and felony class can go up substantially if the crime involves children under 13 years of age — as it allegedly does here.
Named as “SL” and “VL” in the warrant, the two 2014-born boys appeared on The Cleaning Lady over multiple seasons before being let go for having aged out of the role, I hear. However, in a Nov. 3, 2025 phone interview with Busfield in the warrant, The West Wing vet told investigating Officer Brown that he “the lead actress, Elodie Young” informed him over a year ago that “the mother of SL and VL (sic) that she wanted revenge, and I’m going to get my revenge on Tim Busfield for not bringing her kids back for the final season.”
In interviews conducted with SL and VL on Halloween last year by a “forensic child interviewer,” and observed by Officer Brown, today’s arrest warrant says that the former told them the alleged abuse by Busfield started when he was 7 years old and on The Cleaning Lady.
“SL said that Tim touched him three to four times on his ‘poop’ and ‘pee’ area over his clothing,” the 12-page arrest warrant states of what is cited as a second incident with Busfield, very similar to a previous incident. “SL said he was very afraid of Tim and was relieved when he was off set. SL said he was afraid to tell anyone because Tim was the director, and he feared Tim would get mad at him. SL did advise that Tim touched him while he was only on set filming in Albuquerque.”
SL now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, the warrant says. SL disclosing having nightmares about the director touching him and waking up scared,” the document adds.
It goes on: “VL explained that Mr. Tim started touching them for the first two years, and he did not want to say anything, because he did not want to be mean to him. Therefore, VL did not say anything. VL said Mr. Tim would start touching him with his hands about his body while they were filming in the ‘house’. VL advised that it was about his body, but did not disclose that he was touched on his buttocks or penis area. VL said he did not like being touched, but did not say anything because he did not want to get in trouble.”
The matter actually first came to the cops’ attention in late 2024 when a doctor from University of New Mexico Hospital contacted the Albuquerque Police Department in regards to a “sexual abuse investigation.”
Noting that the boys’ father had been advised to go to the hospital by a local law firm, today’s warrant details: Officer Osborn talked with both VL and SL, who did not disclose any sexual contact at this time. However, both boys advised that Timothy Busfield, whom they referred to as ‘Uncle Tim’, would tickle them on the stomach and legs. Neither boy cared for the tickling. Officer Osborn contacted Detective Michael Brown with the Crimes Against Children Unit and determined that the case did not meet their acceptance criteria at this time.”
The matter came back to the police’s attention and became a much greater priority after the boys’ mother “advised that on 09/02/2025, SL reported to his counselor that Timothy Busfield touched his penis and bottom.”
In that same telephone conversation with Busfield in the weeks before Thanksgiving last year, the NYC-based filmmaker also dropped to Officer Brown that producers Warner Bros TV had conducted its own probe into allegations against him after SAG-AFTRA received an anonymous complaint in early 2025 of an incident on The Cleaning Lady set in December 2024. After writing up a search warrant for WB (which today’s warrant seems to mistakenly say occurred on “10/03/2025”) and several correspondences with WB attorney Richard Wessling at law firm Proskauer, Officer Brown on NYE last year got his hands on the March 31, 2025 external report put together by the LA office of Solomon Law.
Specifically the report, which saw Busfield suspended during the probe, looked into claims from the hotline caller that there was evidence of Busfield “tickling and caressing the head and body of minor boys” while working on the Albuquerque-filmed Cleaning Lady. Upon his own reading of the document, Officer Brown says in Friday’s warrant that Solomon investigator “Christina McGovern was not able to talk with anyone who would support evidence that Timothy Busfield engaged in this behavior.”
Working from what now seems to be limited accusations, the WBTV investigation viewed Busfield as “exonerated,” sources tell me.
In a statement to Deadline tonight, the Channing Dungey-led WBTV said: “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.”
As well as speaking to the boys’ mother and father (who seem to have instigated and then ceased a civil suit on this), plus some Cleaning Lady production assistants and Make-up and Hair department staffers, today’s warrant also details a brief back-and-forth between Officer Brown and the series star Yung, who was a producer too.
“On 11/5/2025, I contacted Elodie Yung to set up an interview. Elodie agreed to meet with me at the Northwest Substation on 11/7/2025,” Officer Brown notes in his fairly comprehensive affidavit that e Albuquerque Assistant DA Savannah Brandenburg-Koch signed off on today. “I did initially advise Elodie that Tim Busfield gave me her name and said that she may have information about this case. On 11/06/2025, Elodie left me a voicemail declining to speak with me and said that she does not want to be involved with the investigation and that she would not have any information that could assist in this case.”
Busfield’s agents at Innovative Artists did not respond late Friday to Deadline’s request for comment on the arrest warrant and the charges against their client.
New Mexico
Retired Wright-Patterson general mentioned in UFO report missing in NM
U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform annual Daytona 500 flyover
The USAF Thunderbirds flew over Daytona International Speedway before The Great American Race on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026.
A retired U.S. Air Force general who once commanded a research division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, has gone missing in New Mexico.
This is what we know.
McCasland commanded Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has issued a Silver Alert for Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, 68, who has been missing since last week, Newsweek reports. He was last seen on Feb. 27 in Albuquerque. McCasland is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs about 160 pounds. He has white hair and blue eyes, and he has unspecified medical issues, per the sheriff’s office, which is worried about his safety.
McCasland was the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, according to his Air Force biography. He managed a $2.2 billion science and technology program as well as $2.2 billion in additional customer-funded research and development. He joined Wright-Patterson in 2011 and retired in 2013.
He was commissioned in 1979 after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in astronautical engineering. He has served in a wide variety of space research, acquisition and operations roles within the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office.
McCasland mentioned in WikiLeaks release in connection to UFOs
McCasland was described as a key adviser on UFO-related projects by Tom DeLonge, UFO researcher and guitarist for Blink-182, Newsweek reports. The general’s name appears in the 2016 WikiLeaks email release from John Podesta, then Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager.
In emails to Podesta, DeLonge said he’s been working with McCasland for months and that the general was aware of the materials DeLonge was probing because McCasland has been “in charge of the laboratory at Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base where the Roswell wreckage was shipped,” per Newsweek.
However, there is no official record of DeLonge’s claims, and McCasland has neither confirmed nor denied it.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base home to UFO project
The Dayton Air Force base was home to Project Blue Book in the 1950s and 60s, according to “The Air Force Investigation into UFOs” published by Ohio State University.
During that time, it logged some 12,618 UFO sightings, with 701 of those remaining “unidentified.” The U.S. government created the project because of Cold War-era security concerns and Americans’ obsession with aliens.
New Mexico
Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico ranch is finally being scrutinized like his island
Though the alleged sex trafficking on Jeffrey Epstein’s Caribbean island, Little Saint James, has dominated the national discourse recently, another Epstein property has largely stayed out of the news — but perhaps not for long. A ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, that belonged to the disgraced financier has been the subject of on-and-off investigations, and many are now reexamining what role the ranch may have played in Epstein’s crimes.
What is the ranch in question?
Epstein first purchased the ranch in 1993, and it made his seven-story Manhattan penthouse “look like a shack,” he said to Vanity Fair in 2003. Recently released photos by the Department of Justice “provide a look inside the tightly guarded gates” of the compound, said the Santa Fe New Mexican, including images that “show Epstein and others posing” throughout the ranch. In addition to the main house, Zorro Ranch also had a “three-bedroom lodge and off-the-grid log cabin as well as a 4,400-foot airstrip with an aircraft hangar and helipad.”
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Why is the ranch being investigated?
Given the isolated nature of Zorro Ranch, there are numerous allegations about “what role the secluded spot played in sexual abuse or sex trafficking of underage girls and young women,” said The Associated Press. Several of Epstein’s public victims have claimed they were trafficked at the ranch, but “New Mexico leaders say there has never been a thorough investigation of the criminal activity that may have occurred” on the property, said the Times.
There was previously a minimal investigation into the ranch, which was “taken over by federal prosecutors in 2019, and then apparently fizzled, according to New Mexico officials and recently unsealed records,” said the Times. However, unlike Epstein’s other properties, federal agents “did not appear to have ever searched Zorro Ranch,” according to a report from The Guardian. Officials were “paying attention to Paris, Little Saint James, New York and Miami, but they didn’t pay attention to Zorro Ranch,” Eddy Aragon, an Albuquerque radio D.J. and Epstein researcher, told the Times.
Following public pressure related to Epstein, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez recently “ordered that the criminal investigation into allegations of illegal activity at Jeffrey Epstein’s Zorro Ranch be reopened,” the New Mexico Department of Justice said in a press release. But since Epstein’s 2019 death, the ranch has come under new ownership, meaning an investigation may not be simple.
After the most recent batch of Epstein documents was released, the “claims in the documents have proved impossible to ignore,” said the Times. Most notable is a 2019 email alleging that in the “hills outside the Zorro, two foreign girls were buried on orders of Jeffrey and Madam G,” the latter apparently referencing Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. “Both died by strangulation during rough, fetish sex.” The sender of the email was “redacted by the DOJ,” said CNN. It is “not clear that those allegations have been investigated by law enforcement.”
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New Mexico
What to know: Election Day 2026 in Rio Rancho
Polls are now open in Rio Rancho where voters are set to elect a new mayor and decide several key measures Tuesday.
RIO RANCHO, N.M. — Rio Rancho voters are set to elect a new mayor and decide several key measures Tuesday in one of New Mexico’s fastest growing cities.
Voters will make their way to one of the 14 voting centers open Tuesday to decide which person will become mayor, replacing Gregg Hull. These six candidates are running:
Like Albuquerque, Rio Rancho candidates need to earn 50% of the votes to win. Otherwise, the top two candidates will go to a runoff election.
Regardless of who wins, this will be the first time Rio Rancho voters will elect a new mayor in over a decade. Their priorities include addressing crime and how fast the city is growing, as well as improving infrastructure and government transparency, especially as the site of a new Project Ranger missile project.
The only other race with multiple candidates is the District 5 city council seat. Incumbent Karissa Culbreath faces a challenge from Calvin Ducane Ward.
Voters will also decide the fate of three general obligation bonds:
- $12 million to road projects
- $4.3 million to public safety facility projects
- $1.2 million to public quality of life projects
- e.g., renovating the Esther Bone Memorial Library
The polls will stay open until 7 p.m.
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