Melissa Gilbert is rejoicing after a judge threw out the child sex abuse case filed against her husband Timothy Busfield.
A New Mexico judge on Oct. 16 granted the 69-year-old actor-producer's motion to dismiss his grand jury indictment, according to documents USA TODAY obtained.
While the "Little House on the Prairie" actor has not publicly commented on the judge's ruling, she posted a Shakespeare quote on Instagram Oct. 16: "So shines a good deed in a weary world."
She also posted a New York Times article about the case update on her Instagram Story.
Busfield, who has denied the allegations, was indicted in February on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child stemming from alleged incidents with two minor twin boys when he was working
as a director on Fox's "The Cleaning Lady."
In his ruling, New Mexico Judge Joseph Montano said: "The prosecuting attorney failed to act in a fair and impartial manner, including the failure to properly instruct the grand jury on the law for calling witnesses and in instructing the grand jurors on a procedure that effectively withheld requested witnesses."
Montano determined that members of the grand jury requested additional witness testimony before returning the indictment. However, the prosecutor allegedly told the 12 jurors that additional witness testimony would require a subpoena and 36-hour notice, without saying that a judge could grant a shorter time frame or that witnesses could willingly testify without a subpoena at all.
Melissa Gilbert has long maintained her husband's innocence
Gilbert has stood by Busfield throughout the case, pleading for her husband's innocence.
The couple met in the 1980s and crossed paths frequently for decades before starting a relationship in 2012 and marrying in 2013.
In an April 6 "Good Morning America" interview, she said that the director's arrest and everything that followed was "the most traumatizing experience of our lives."
"Our life, as we knew it, is done," she told host George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired April 6. "We are grieving what we had. All of our plans, all of our dreams, all of our ideas, all of our projects − for Tim, it's done. He's canceled. Even if he's exonerated, he will always be that guy."
Gilbert said she never doubted the innocence of her husband, describing him as the "last person in the world who would hurt a child." She said justice in the case would include "exoneration, an apology," and "freedom from this cloud."
"If I thought for a second that Tim Busfield hurt a child, he'd have a lot more to worry about than prison," she added.
"I know this man in my bones. No one knows him better than I do. I know literally everything about him," she said, adding that he is "an honorable, caring, generous human being" and she is "100% confident he will be exonerated."
In January, she wrote one of more than 70 letters supporting the "West Wing" actor, calling him "my love, my rock, my partner in business and life."
"I began this letter with logic, but now the feelings have taken over. I can’t help it. I only want this extraordinary man safe and whole," she wrote to a judge of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court. "So, I will close by asking you to please, please, take care of my sweet husband. As he is my protector, I am his, but I cannot protect him now and I think that, more than anything else, is what is truly breaking my heart."
Contributing: Liza Esquibias, Anna Kaufman and Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Melissa Gilbert reacts after sex abuse case dismissed against husband Timothy Busfield
