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
Florida bans shelter animal imports from Texas and New Mexico over flesh-eating screwworm
Screwworm concerns change animal shelter protocol
Florida agriculture officials implemented an emergency ban restricting rescue groups and animal shelters from bringing dogs and cats into the state from Texas and New Mexico after a flesh-eating parasite emerged out West. FOX 13’s Briona Arradondo reports.
TAMPA, Fla. – Florida agriculture officials implemented an emergency ban restricting rescue groups and animal shelters from bringing dogs and cats into the state from Texas and New Mexico after a flesh-eating parasite emerged out West.
Florida agriculture ban
What we know:
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson expanded screwworm restrictions on Wednesday, blocking the import of shelter and rescue animals from areas impacted by the New World screwworm.
Courtesy: United States Department of Agriculture
This parasitic, flesh-eating fly has been detected in Texas livestock and inside a dog in New Mexico.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture dashboard lists nine reported cases of the parasite so far.
Broken containment
Timeline:
“[It] was eradicated from the United States in the 1960s, and then eradicated from Mexico and Central America down south past the Darien Gap in Panama in the early 2000s,” said Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor of veterinary entomology at the University of Florida. “It’s recently broken containment from the region in Panama and has slowly made its way northward towards the U.S. border over the past two years.”
Previous Florida cases
The backstory:
Florida successfully defeated an outbreak of the same parasite a decade ago.
Screwworm cases popped up in Key Deer in the Florida Keys in 2016 and 2017.
During that outbreak, state and federal agencies launched a rapid response and quickly contained the flesh-eating flies.
Animals at highest risk
Why you should care:
Stray animals face the highest risk because they spend long periods outside and often suffer injuries that attract flies, Burgess said.
The fly larvae eat living flesh, making infestations incredibly painful for animals.
If travelers visit infected states, a well-maintained pet is unlikely to contract the parasite, but owners should watch for crawling larvae and a foul smell from a wound.
Tampa animal shelters
Local perspective:
Local operations around the Tampa area do not expect major disruptions from the state restrictions.
Organizations such as SPCA Tampa Bay and the Humane Society of Tampa Bay rarely bring in pets from outside Florida, typically doing so only during disaster relief situations.
Even then, local workers put every animal through strict health checkups.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from an interview with University of Florida veterinary entomologist Edwin Burgess and reviewed data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture dashboard by FOX 13’s Briona Arradondo.
The first case is about 2.5 months earlier than the first case last year.
SANTA FE, N.M. – The New Mexico Department of Health reports a Santa Fe County woman died from plague in the state’s first human case of 2026.
NMDOH said it has contacted people close to the woman and will conduct an environmental assessment to check for ongoing risk and make sure no other close contacts have symptoms.
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the friends and family of the woman who passed away due to plague,” said Erin Phipps, state public health veterinarian for NMDOH. “This tragedy emphasizes the need for heightened community awareness and for taking measures to prevent plague infections.”
What is plague?
Plague is a bacterial disease carried by rodents across much of the western United States, according to NMDOH. People can get it through bites from infected fleas from wild rodents or household pets, through direct contact with infected animals and, in lung infections, through coughing.
NMDOH said symptoms in people include sudden fever, chills, headache and weakness. The agency said people may also have painful swelling of a lymph node in the groin, armpit or neck, and doctors who suspect plague should promptly report it to the department.
How is plague treated or prevented?
The agency said prompt diagnosis and antibiotic treatment can greatly reduce the fatality rate in people and pets. NMDOH urged people to avoid sick or dead rodents and rabbits, clean up places near homes where rodents live, use DEET or permethrin products outdoors, use veterinarian-approved flea control for pets, get sick pets checked quickly and see a doctor for unexplained illness tied to sudden severe fever.
The department said more information and fact sheets in English and Spanish are available on the plague page of the NMDOH website.
Recent cases of plague
New Mexico recorded three human plague cases in 2025 and one in 2024, which was fatal. NMDOH also said three dogs have been diagnosed with plague in 2026 after one cat and four dogs tested positive in 2025.
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