Actor Gary Busey has been accused of groping two attendees at a horror film convention in New Jersey earlier this month and hit with sex crimes charges.
Police have been tight-lipped about the specifics, saying only that “multiple complaints” had been made against him in connection with his stay at a Doubletree Hotel on Aug. 12-14 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where he was a featured guest at the Monster-Mania Convention.
“It was about contact. It was about touching,” Cherry Hill Police Lt. Robert Scheunemann was quoted telling the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Fans had taken to social media to gush over Busey’s appearance at the convention, and promotional materials posted on the Convention Scene website praised him for his role as “Uncle Red” in the 1985 film adaptation of Stephen King’s Silver Bullet.
“Don’t miss your chance to meet GARY BUSEY at the show!” one flyer for the event read.
But an attorney representing the convention organizers told TMZ they were the ones who had encouraged one of Busey’s accusers to contact police immediately after the alleged groping.
“Immediately upon receiving a complaint from the attendee, the celebrity guest was removed from the convention and instructed not to return,” the attorney was quoted saying, adding that the organizers were “assisting authorities in their investigation.”
No further details were immediately available on the alleged victims at the convention.
Busey is no stranger to such accusations—in 2016, five Apprentice employees told The Daily Beast that he sexually assaulted a female employee while he was on the show.
This time, Busey, of Malibu, California, was charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact in the fourth degree, one count of a criminal attempt of sexual contact, and another count of harassment, police said in a statement.
Busey, who has starred in films including The Buddy Holly Story, Lethal Weapon, and Point Break, earned an Academy Award nomination early on in his career, but wound up in a near-fatal motorcycle accident in 1988 that left him with brain damage.
After that, he made headlines for a string of encounters with law enforcement, including an arrest on drug charges in 1995 and allegations of spousal abuse in 2001.
Busey’s representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking comment from The Daily Beast.
