Busfield Charges Tossed: Jurors Wanted Witnesses. The DA Said No.
A New Mexico judge dismissed the child sex abuse indictment against West Wing and thirtysomething actor Timothy Busfield, citing prosecutor misconduct. The grand jury had asked to hear more witnesses and was blocked. The state says it is evaluating whether to refile.
Explore Strange New Parts ↓
The headline is that Timothy Busfield is free. The story is why.
On Friday, October 16, New Mexico State District Judge Joseph Montano threw out the grand jury indictment against Busfield, the Emmy-winning actor best known for thirtysomething, Field of Dreams, and The West Wing. The judge did not find that Busfield was innocent. He found that the prosecution had bungled the grand jury process so thoroughly that the indictment could not stand. Per CBS News, Montano wrote that the prosecutor "failed to act in a fair and impartial manner."
That is the sentence worth reading twice. Not that the evidence was weak. Not that the witnesses were unreliable. That the prosecutor failed to act fairly.
What the jurors wanted and what the DA told them
The specific failure is striking. According to Busfield's defense attorney Amanda Fayerberg, who played audio of the grand jury proceedings at a September hearing, the jurors themselves kept asking to hear from additional witnesses. People who were present on set. People who were, in the defense's framing, "present, available and willing to testify." Fox News reports that prosecutors told the jurors subpoenas would be required, effectively blocking access to witnesses the jurors themselves wanted to call.
The grand jurors were trying to do their job with more rigor than the prosecutor. The judge agreed that the result was structural error requiring dismissal.
The charges and the allegations
Busfield, 68, had been indicted on four counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor, each carrying a possible six-year sentence. The allegations stem from his work directing episodes of The Cleaning Lady in Albuquerque between 2022 and 2024. Fox News and CBS News report that the case involves 11-year-old twin boys who were allegedly instructed to call him "Uncle Tim" on set. One twin told police Busfield touched them over their clothing on the genitals and bottom during an incident in a set bedroom when they were alone.
Busfield has denied every allegation, calling them revenge-motivated lies. His attorney Larry Stein said in February that the case was "fundamentally unsound and cannot be proven at trial."
The defense has also pointed out that the children themselves initially told police Busfield had not touched them inappropriately, and has accused the twins' parents of coaching them. Hospital professionals who examined the children reportedly told the parents the boys showed signs of having been "groomed," which the defense contests.
Dismissed is not acquitted
The distinction matters. An acquittal is a verdict of not guilty after a trial. A dismissal for prosecutorial misconduct is a procedural ruling: the state cannot use this indictment, but it remains free to seek a new one. The Double Jeopardy protection that would bar a retrial after acquittal does not apply here.
Bernalillo County District Attorney Greer Staley has said her office is "evaluating options." Per Fox News, DA communications director Nancy Laflin said: "Our office has received the order and is evaluating our options." Fayerberg, for her part, was direct: "If the State chooses to try again, Tim is ready, and so are those witnesses."
Busfield himself, through his team, was described as "relieved and grateful." He should be. This is a significant legal victory. It is not the end of the story.
What this case keeps revealing
The procedural dimension of this dismissal is its own story. Grand juries exist precisely to test the state's evidence before an indictment is issued. They are supposed to be independent. When a grand jury's own jurors are asking for more witnesses and the prosecutor's office is functionally blocking those requests, the process has inverted itself. The oversight body was overseeing the prosecutor, and the prosecutor resisted.
Judge Montano found that the presumption of prejudice applied: meaning the error was serious enough that harm to the defendant is presumed, not just theorized. The state will have to decide whether it wants to run the grand jury process correctly this time.
Ad Watch News is an independent commentary site with no affiliation with Timothy Busfield, the Bernalillo County DA, or any party to this case. This piece is analysis of published reporting. All claims are drawn from the outlets linked in the text and listed below.
Sources & further reading
- CBS News: Timothy Busfield judge dismisses child sex abuse charges
- Fox News: Judge tosses Timothy Busfield indictment child sex abuse charges
- NBC News: Judge dismisses child sexual abuse charges against actor Timothy Busfield
- Yahoo Entertainment: Timothy Busfield child sex-abuse charges dismissed
- KSL News: New Mexico judge tosses charges against actor Timothy Busfield citing prosecutor misconduct
