Armed police raid of Timothy Busfield’s mountain hideout was a ‘total screw up’ and ‘heads will roll,’ warn insiders… as shocking new details emerge
They came with guns locked and loaded, but the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force that raided Timothy Busfield’s home in Highland Lake, New York planning to arrest him were on a fool’s errand.
By the time agents arrived at the secluded property on Tuesday, the actor, charged with two counts of child sex abuse, had already turned himself in to cops in New Mexico.
The question is why the screw up?
Busfield’s surrender came two days after Albuquerque police issued a warrant for the West Wing star’s arrest, charging him with two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse on the set of his TV show ‘The Cleaning Lady.’
‘Heads are going to roll over this one,’ an insider said of Tuesday’s raid. ‘It’s hard to know exactly how the order for New York’s elite task force to conduct the raid came through.
‘But looks like it was a total screw up.’
Busfield says he drove 2,000 in three days to hand himself in in Albuquerque, but the armed raid in New York went ahead an hour after he was processed by authorities in New Mexico.
The operation lasted around 20 minutes, and when asked by the Daily Mail whether they were aware Busfield had already handed himself in, one stern-faced officer declined to comment.
Heavily armed US Marshals were seen descending on the secluded Catskills home of Timothy Busfield and Melissa Gilbert, smashing through the front door with a battering ram during a dramatic raid on Tuesday
The US Marshals raid on Timothy Busfield and wife Melissa Gilbert’s mountain home has been called into question after it took place when the actor had already handed himself in, 2,000 miles away in New Mexico
Since then, officials at the US Marshals Service have ignored repeated requests for comment and have yet to explain why the raid went ahead when Busfield was already in custody.
The move has sparked fresh scrutiny over how the operation was approved and whether agencies were working from outdated information.
When approached by the Daily Mail, officials at the Albany, New York, branch of the US Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force said they were unaware of the raid, adding that it may have been authorized as part of a federal probe.
It is unclear which branch of the US Marshals offices across New York headed up the operation, but it is believed the marshals most likely came from either Albany or Syracuse.
When the Daily Mail returned to Busfield and wife Melissa Gilbert’s mountain property in Highland Lake, a 20-minute drive from the Pennsylvania border, on Wednesday, two women were seen inside and around the house, including one who adjusted a security camera overlooking the driveway.
They were accompanied by two dogs who could be seen barking and roaming the snowy grounds before both of the women departed shortly after 1.45pm.
On Tuesday, at least ten officers, members of the New York Regional Fugitive Task Force, rammed open the door demanding any occupants come outside.
When they received no response, the marshals, fitted with helmets and shields and armed with assault rifles and riot gear, burst into the home using a battering ram to knock open the white front door.
But as a swarm of officers stormed the $300,000 upstate New York retreat – pictured on Wednesday – Busfield had already been in custody after surrendering to police
When Daily Mail returned to the property on Wednesday, two women were seen inside and around the house
One of the women appeared to be servicing or adjusting a security camera overlooking the driveway
Several law enforcement officers spent around ten minutes examining the interior, before clearing the rear of the snowy property, which also has an RV and outhouse.
They did not appear to take any belongings when they left.
Seven vehicles pulled into the driveway of the secluded home 20 minutes from the Pennsylvania border, which the couple have called their retreat.
The 68-year-old Emmy award-winning actor was charged last week with sexually assaulting twin boys on the set of TV series The Cleaning Lady from 2022 until 2024.
Busfield has now also been accused in court papers of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl while she was auditioning for a show.
The alleged victim’s father told police Busfield groped the aspiring actress ‘several years ago’ at the theater he and his brother Buck founded in Sacramento, California.
‘While auditioning for the defendant at B Street Theatre, the 16-year-old reported that (he) kissed her and put his hands down her pants and touched her privates,’ the motion states.
Busfield allegedly ‘begged the family to not report to law enforcement if he received therapy,’ and the alleged victim’s father, being a ‘therapist himself, thought at the time that was the best thing to do’.
The actor has denied all the accusations against him.
His lawyer, Larry Stein, told the Daily Mail on Wednesday: ‘Tim Busfield denies the allegations in the criminal complaint and maintains they are completely false.
No one appeared to be home at the time of the raid, with officers eventually departing the quiet lakeside neighborhood
At least ten officers in helmets, shields, and tactical gear stormed the $300,000 upstate New York retreat an hour after Gilbert’s husband Timothy Busfield surrendered to police 2,000 miles away
Busfield turned himself in to law enforcement in New Mexico on Tuesday but insisted he was innocent of child sex accusations
‘As a voluntary step, he submitted to an independent polygraph examination regarding those allegations and passed,’ added Stein.
He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center outside Albuquerque, before a brief hearing in front of a magistrate judge on Wednesda, when he was denied bail.
The Emmy award-winning actor addressed the charges and maintained his innocence in a video to TMZ when he turned himself in.
‘I will confront these lies,’ Busfield told the outlet from the office of his attorney in Albuquerque. ‘I did not do anything to those little boys.’
‘I was ordered to come to Albuquerque, and well, I’m here now,’ Busfield said to the camera.
‘I got the call Friday night, I had to get a lawyer, and on Saturday I got a car and drove 2,000 miles to Albuquerque.’
Busfield described allegations that he inappropriately touched two young boys in 2022 on the set of the TV show ‘The Cleaning Lady’, which he was directing, as ‘horrible lies’, and vowed to fight the charges.
‘They’re all lies, and I did not do anything,’ he said. ‘I’m gonna fight it with a great team, and I know I’m going to be exonerated.
‘I know I am, because this is all so wrong and all lies.’
Gilbert also leapt to her husband’s defense Tuesday, saying she is ‘standing by him’ in a statement.
