New York|Gary Busey Sentenced to Two Years’ Probation for Sex Offense

The actor Gary Busey was sentenced this week to two years’ probation for inappropriately touching a woman at a horror movie convention in New Jersey in 2022, according to court records.

Mr. Busey, 81, was sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty in July to criminal sexual contact.

“Mr. Busey is pleased that the case has been resolved and that he can go on with his life without any continuing, daily public adversity,” Blair Zwillman, his lawyer, said on Saturday.

The sentencing caps a three-year case that began after several women accused Mr. Busey of misconduct and harassment at Monster-Mania Con, a movie convention at a hotel in Cherry Hill, near Philadelphia, in August 2022.

Prosecutors said that during a photo shoot at the convention, Mr. Busey groped several women, including grabbing two women’s buttocks and attempting to unhook another women’s bra.

Shortly after the charges were filed, Mr. Busy, who lives in Malibu, Calif., told a reporter from the celebrity news site TMZ that “nothing happened” and that the women had fabricated the story. He pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in March 2025.

But he reversed that assertion in July, pleading guilty to a count that Mr. Zwillman said was connected to “touching the buttocks of a female over the clothing.”

Mr. Busey had faced a maximum sentence of five years’ probation and a $500 fine. The shorter probation sentence, pronounced over Zoom by a judge in Camden County, N.J., gives him the opportunity to seek early termination after one year, Mr. Zwillman said.

Mr. Busey was born in Texas and grew up in Oklahoma, according to his IMDB page. He rose to fame after earning an Oscar nomination for the 1978 film “The Buddy Holly Story” and went on to appear in “Lethal Weapon” and “Predator 2,” among many other films and television shows.

In 1988, Mr. Busey suffered a brain injury in a motorcycle accident. He also struggled with substance abuse, appearing in 2008 on the reality show “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.”