Timothy Busfield has had his child sexual abuse case dismissed, following a New Mexico judge’s determination that Albuquerque prosecutors acted improperly by failing to allow the grand jury to hear from more witnesses.
The 69-year-old actor made national
headlines when he was arrested in January, accused of misconduct related to twin child actors he worked with on the Fox television series The Cleaning Lady. Although Busfield profusely denied the claims, calling them “horrible lies,” he was indicted by a grand jury on four counts of criminal sexual contact with a child the following month.
Busfield filed a motion to quash the indictment in June, with his attorneys arguing the prosecutor “abandoned his role as a neutral aide to the grand jury, misstated the law and blocked the grand jury access to witnesses.” The grand jury heard testimony only from the lead detective and Busfield, despite jurors asking three separate times to hear from more witnesses.
In a ruling handed down on Friday, a judge sided with Busfield and voided the indictment, writing “the prosecuting attorney failed to act in a fair and impartial manner … in doing so, the grand jury proceedings were conducted in a manner that violated grand jury statutes designed to protect the structural integrity of our grand jury system and presumption of prejudice applies.”
However, the judge noted that prosecutors were still free to initiate new criminal proceedings against Busfield.
Rolling Stone has reached out to Busfield’s representative for comment.
Albuquerque officials launched an investigation into Busfield in November 2024 over concerns that the child actors were possibly “groomed” by Busfield, who served as an executive producer and director of The Cleaning Lady. The investigation resumed late last year when one of the children made claims of sexual contact to his therapist.
At his grand jury testimony, Busfield said the accusations had destroyed his life. “My career’s done,” he said during his two-hour-long testimony. “I’m canceled. I’ll never work again just based on people’s fear that I would do this again, and even if it wasn’t true, I’m done. I’ve lost TV shows, a movie they’ve digitally replaced me from. My agency fired me. I’m done. This is not about me or a pity thing.”
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