Gary Busey sentenced to two years probation in New Jersey sexual contact case

Actor Gary Busey was sentenced Thursday to two years of probation after pleading guilty in July to a fourth-degree criminal sexual contact charge for inappropriately touching a woman during a photo opportunity at a New Jersey horror convention in August 2022, court records show. The sentence was imposed during a virtual hearing in Camden, New Jersey, where Judge Gwendolyn Blue also ordered Busey to submit a DNA sample and barred him from contacting two of the alleged victims.

Prosecutors say the conduct occurred at the MonsterMania Convention at the DoubleTree Hotel in Cherry Hill, a Philadelphia suburb, during the event that ran Aug. 12–14, 2022. Busey, 81, pleaded guilty to a single count tied to touching a woman’s buttocks over her clothing during an eight to 10 second photo op, according to court documents. As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed additional counts that initially included two other counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, one count of attempted criminal sexual contact and one count of harassment.

Accounts of how many women were affected differ. Police and several news reports say multiple women filed complaints, with some reports citing...