What the judge decided
A state court judge in New Mexico has dismissed child sexual abuse charges against Timothy Busfield, an actor and director known for prime-time television roles. Judge Joseph Montano concluded that the prosecution behaved neither fairly nor impartially while the grand jury was sitting. The judge added that prosecutors remain free to bring new charges against Busfield.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
The second judicial district attorney office in New Mexico indicated through a spokesperson that it is reviewing how to proceed after the dismissal. The decision ends, at least for now, a case that had been moving through the courts since the beginning of the year.[S1]
The allegations and the indictment
According to a criminal complaint filed in January, twin brothers told authorities that improper contact took place across a two-year span, when they were seven and eight years old, during pauses in production. The alleged conduct was said to have occurred on the Albuquerque set of the Fox television drama The Cleaning Lady, where Busfield worked as a director and producer.[S1]
In February, a grand jury returned a four-count indictment accusing Busfield of groping one of the boys. The actor has consistently maintained his innocence, describing the allegations as lies, and his legal team sought dismissal of the charges.[S1]
Why the grand jury process failed
In the ruling issued Friday, Montano found that the prosecution gave grand jurors incorrect guidance on how they could ask to hear from additional witnesses. The prosecutor told them, in part, that at least eight jurors would need to agree before a witness could be summoned. Montano wrote that the prosecuting attorney did not act fairly and impartially, and that this conduct effectively allowed the lawyer to withhold witnesses the grand jurors had requested on his own authority.[S1]
Who Busfield is
Busfield, who is 69, is best known to television audiences as a White House correspondent on NBC's The West Wing and as an ad agency executive on ABC's ensemble drama Thirtysomething. His film credits include Field of Dreams, the baseball movie featuring Kevin Costner.[S1]
