Judge Tosses Timothy Busfield Indictment, Faulting Prosecutors Who Kept Witnesses From Grand Jury

A New Mexico judge has thrown out the child sexual contact indictment against actor and director Timothy Busfield. The judge ruled that prosecutors kept grand jurors from hearing witnesses the jurors had asked to hear. The ruling does not decide whether the allegations are true, and the state can still bring the case again.

State District Judge Joseph Montano granted the defense motion to quash the indictment in a six-page order released Friday, Oct. 16. “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 wrote, according to the order as quoted by CBS News and Deadline. Because of that, he found, the proceedings “violated grand jury statutes designed to protect the structural integrity of our grand jury system and the presumption of prejudice applies.”

The judge was specific about what went wrong. “The issue presented is that once alerted, the grand jurors requested to hear from witnesses not presented by the State, and the prosecutor used an unexplained procedure and an incomplete explanation of the subpoena requirement to unilaterally withhold evidence from the grand jury,” he wrote.

The dismissal is without prejudice. “The State, however, remains free to institute new criminal proceedings against Defendant,” the order says, according to Fox News. Nancy Laflin, communications director for the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office, said the office “has received the order and is evaluating our options to determine how we will proceed.” As of Oct. 28, the office had not publicly announced a decision.

Busfield’s criminal defense lawyer, Amber Fayerberg, said in a statement to CBS News that her client was “relieved and grateful.” She added: “The grand jurors kept asking to hear from the people who were on set with him. Those witnesses were sitting in the hallway, ready to tell the grand jury what they saw, and what they saw shows that Tim is innocent. The prosecution would not let them in.” She also expected a possible second round: “We know this may not be the end. If the State chooses to try again, Tim is ready, and so are those witnesses.”

The case grew out of Busfield’s work as a director and producer on the Fox drama “The Cleaning Lady,” which filmed in Albuquerque. The parents of twin boys who had been let go from the show said Busfield touched the children inappropriately on set, according to CBS News. According to a criminal complaint filed in January, one boy told an Albuquerque police investigator that Busfield touched his private areas over his clothing once when he was 7 and again when he was 8. His brother said he was also touched but did not say where.

A warrant was issued Jan. 9, and Busfield surrendered on Jan. 13. He was first held on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse. On Jan. 20, Judge David Murphy released him pending trial and rejected the district attorney’s concerns that he might flee. CBS reported that the judge found no pattern of criminal conduct or similar allegations involving children in Busfield’s past.

A grand jury indictment unsealed Feb. 6 replaced those charges with four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child under 13. It alleged that between Oct. 19, 2022, and Sept. 10, 2023, Busfield “touched or applied force to the intimate parts” of one of the boys, the BBC reported. Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman said at the time that the case was “expected to move forward to trial.” Each count carries up to six years in prison. Busfield, 68 at the time of the indictment, pleaded not guilty in February.

He has denied the allegations from the start. His lawyers say the boys first told police that nothing inappropriate happened. They also accuse the parents of coaching the children after the boys lost their roles on the show. Testifying before the grand jury, Busfield said the case had gotten him “canceled,” cost him work and his agency, and turned his family’s life upside down. Asked whether he had caressed the children, he said, “I’m saying that is absolutely one gazillion percent untrue. Never ever,” according to transcripts his attorneys submitted.

The defense moved to quash the indictment in June. The motion said prosecutors had been “willfully blind to the lack of evidence” and had “invented procedural hurdles” to keep jurors from hearing witnesses. At a hearing in Albuquerque on Sept. 25, Fayerberg played recordings of grand jurors asking for more witnesses. She said prosecutors told the jurors subpoenas would be needed, even though the witnesses were “present, available and willing to testify.” “The state engaged in egregious prosecutorial misconduct,” she said.

Prosecutor Greer Staley argued that the defense had not followed the proper process for submitting evidence to a grand jury. She also argued that Busfield, during roughly three hours of testimony, had tried “excessively” to steer jurors toward favorable witnesses and exhibits. Montano rejected the state’s position. He wrote that any delay caused when prosecutors dispute evidence that grand jurors have asked for is outweighed by “the reliability of the grand jury system and the intent that grand jurors be given access to more evidence.”

Mark Groubert treated the Busfield ruling as breaking news. After reading from the wire report, he argued that the case fit a pattern with the Alec Baldwin prosecution, since judges threw out both after citing prosecutorial misconduct. “I’ve never seen back-to-back celebrity cases with prosecutorial misconduct,” he said.

He faulted the judge for not explaining what the misconduct was. “You can’t have it both ways, your honor. You got to spell it out,” he said. The order he was discussing does name the conduct at issue, which was the handling of witnesses the grand jurors requested and the explanation of subpoena rules they were given.

He went further and suggested that some judges in the state might be open to bribes, while saying plainly that he had nothing to support it. “Again, I have no evidence of this. It just doesn’t pass the smell test for me,” he said. Groubert stressed that he was not accusing Busfield of wrongdoing. He correctly noted that the dismissal was without prejudice, called the outcome odd, and said he would come back to the case once prosecutors announce their next step.

The two New Mexico cases Groubert paired ended in different ways. In July 2024, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin, which stemmed from the fatal 2021 shooting on the set of “Rust.” She found that police and prosecutors had withheld ammunition evidence from the defense. That dismissal was with prejudice, so the charge cannot be refiled. Montano’s order in the Busfield case leaves refiling open.

Whether that happens rests with Bregman’s office. Prosecutors could take the case to a new grand jury or proceed another way, or they could let the dismissal stand. The office has not said which it will choose. Busfield, an Emmy winner known for “thirtysomething,” “The West Wing” and “Field of Dreams,” is married to actor Melissa Gilbert. He has spent most of this year on the East Coast while out of custody, Deadline reported.