APD charges movie director with child sexual abuse 

Albuquerque police on Friday obtained an arrest warrant for actor and director Timothy Busfield for allegedly inappropriately touching an 8-year-old boy who worked as a child actor in the television series "The Cleaning Lady."

The alleged abuse occurred on the set of the crime drama series at the Cinelease Studios between 2023 and 2024 while Busfield worked as a director and producer for the series, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court.

Busfield, 68, is charged with felony charges of child abuse and two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor under 13, the complaint said. A warrant for his arrest was signed by a Metro Court judge on Friday.

The Journal's efforts to reach Busfield on Friday were unsuccessful. Email and phone messages left for Richard Wesling, a Washington, D.C., attorney for Warner Brothers, were not immediately returned Friday.

The alleged victim, now 11, who is identified in the complaint as SL, and his twin brother both worked as child actors on "The Cleaning Lady," the complaint said. The charges apparently are based on allegations by one of the boys.

"After reviewing the past medical records, it was documented that SL and his brother were child actors in a show called 'The Cleaning Lady' and experienced grooming and inappropriate touching by a member on the set," Albuquerque Police Department detectives wrote.

"The Cleaning Lady," a joint production of Fox Entertainment and Warner Brothers Television, began production in 2020 in New Mexico and was canceled in June 2025 after four seasons.

Albuquerque police in October issued a search warrant for Warner Brothers requesting access to an independent investigation into on-set incidents involving Busfield. Investigators obtained the investigation in December. It said an anonymous complaint was made in February through the SAG-AFTRA hotline about an alleged incident on the set of "The Cleaning Lady" on Dec. 16, 2024.

The complainant claimed to have witnessed an incident in the hair and makeup trailer when "Busfield entered and kissed a minor male on the face as the minor was getting a haircut," the complaint said.

Production staff were reluctant to speak to investigators, who feared retaliation, the complaint said.

"Warner Bros. made it very difficult to obtain information for this case and waited almost three months to comply with a court order to produce the independent investigation," the criminal complaint said.

Warner Brothers required detectives to go through Wesling, who is identified as an attorney for Warner Brothers, to speak with studio employees.

SL said in his safe house interview that Busfield touched him inappropriately, over his clothing, five or six times during breaks in the production, the complaint said.

"SL said he was afraid to tell anyone because Tim was the Director, and he feared Tim would get mad at him," according to the complaint.

Both boys were interviewed at an Albuquerque safe house in October. The boy identified as SL said in the interview that Busfield first touched him when he was 7.

Investigators spoke with Busfield by phone on Nov. 3, the complaint said. Busfield said he started directing the program in season 2, close to the final episode in 2022.