Judge Dismisses Timothy Busfield Child Sex Abuse Indictment — SkimNews
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- Judge Joseph Montano threw out the February indictment against Timothy Busfield on Friday, ruling that prosecutors failed to act in an impartial manner during grand jury proceedings.
- Busfield was charged with groping a 7-year-old boy on the set of Fox's "The Cleaning Lady," where he worked as a director; he maintains his innocence and told investigators the boy's parents were seeking "revenge" after the child was not hired for the show's final season.
- The judge found that prosecutors impeded grand jurors who asked on three occasions to hear from additional witnesses, with roughly eight potential defense witnesses sitting in the hallway but never called to testify.
- Busfield passed a polygraph test arranged by his attorneys, and a separate Warner Bros. TV investigation into a later allegation raised through SAG-AFTRA was unable to substantiate the claim.
- Busfield and an Albuquerque police detective were the only two witnesses to appear before the grand jury, which the judge called a violation of grand jury statutes triggering a presumption of prejudice.
- The Second Judicial District Attorney's office said it has received the ruling and is "evaluating our options," leaving open the possibility of seeking a new indictment.
Why it matters: The ruling sets a high procedural bar for re-indictment: prosecutors must now either cure the grand jury defects or convince a new panel to charge without the excluded defense witnesses. For Busfield, whose defense team already secured a polygraph pass and a WBTV investigation that could not substantiate the claims, the dismissal shifts leverage sharply in his favor even if the state refiles.
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