Gary Busey Pleads Guilty to Sex Offense in Cherry Hill

Actor Gary Busey, who just pleaded guilty to touching a woman inappropriately in Cherry Hill. (Getty Images)

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Gary Busey Pleads Guilty to Sex Offense In Cherry Hill

This being Philly Mag as opposed to Variety or The Hollywood Reporter, I never thought I’d type the name “Gary Busey.” But if Gary Busey is going to visit the area and commit a crime, well, then it is Gary Busey that I will write about.

The unfortunate train wreck of an actor, who hasn’t done anything good since — well, I actually can’t even remember — just pleaded guilty to one count of criminal sexual contact, stemming from an incident at Monster-Mania Con in Cherry Hill three years ago.

More than one woman at the convention accused Busey of inappropriately touching them. Once organizers of Monster-Mania Con learned of the accusations, they removed Busey from the event. When a reporter from TMZ asked Busey about the allegations, he said, “none of that happened.” Police in Cherry Hill soon charged Busey with two counts of criminal sexual contact, one count of harassment, and one count of attempted criminal sexual contact. His guilty plea to the one charge was part of a negotiated plea deal.

“He personally is glad to put this behind him and move on,” Busey’s lawyer said on Friday, adding that the charge he pleaded guilty to amounted to “touching the buttocks of a female over the clothing.” Busey is scheduled for sentencing on September 18th.

About the Impending SEPTA Doom

You’ve probably heard that SEPTA plans to slash service in the region unless it gets a bunch of money from the state. The first round of said slashing is scheduled for August 24th, with all sorts of drastic changes that include the elimination of certain routes and considerably decreased service, like regional rail trains that run every two hours instead of hourly. But with those changes less than three weeks away, we still don’t know what those new schedules will actually be, so it’s a little hard to know how to adapt to them. (For instance, my son takes regional rail to a part of Montco every day that he can’t get to without the train, so there’s plenty of uncertainty.) On Monday morning, a SEPTA spokesperson promised me the full batch of new schedules no later than Friday. We’ll see.

By the Numbers

0: Chance that you’ll catch me driving through Old City anytime soon. That’s because construction has shut down the westbound lanes of Market Street from 2nd Street through 6th Street, no doubt leading to some major traffic headaches. The lanes won’t reopen until November.

1,673: Pennsylvania voters who were delayed or prevented from voting due to malfunctioning equipment across three elections, according to a new analysis. Not exactly an epidemic of unreliable machines.

$1 billion: What Comcast says it will save in taxes each year thanks to Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” So surely they’ll be lowering your bill, right?

Local Talent

The 2025 Fringe Festival guide just arrived in my mailbox (as in my actual mailbox) on Saturday, and we have some major local talent as well as talent from all over the globe to look forward to in the annual fest, which runs from September 4th through the 28th. New Fringe executive director Nell Bang-Jensen has said that this year’s festival will be “riskier” than ever, and considering that Fringe Festival experiences over the years have included a “nightmare clown” kissing me in a dank West Philly warehouse, a guy purportedly, well, pooping on stage (they actually pumped in the smell of poop… ah, art), and a horse actually pooping on stage – riskier should be interesting. You can explore the offerings here.