Judge Dismisses Child Sexual Abuse Charges Against Timothy Busfield

Prosecutors in New Mexico had secured an indictment of the actor and director on charges he made sexual contact with a child actor. He had pleaded not guilty.

A judge in New Mexico on Friday dismissed child sexual abuse charges against the actor and director Timothy Busfield, after finding flaws in how the prosecution had presented the case to a grand jury.

Mr. Busfield had vehemently denied the accusations of sexual abuse, and pleaded not guilty to the charges. His lawyers had sought the dismissal of the indictment, which was filed in February.

In a written order, Judge Joseph Montano of the Second Judicial District Court of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, said the prosecutor in charge of the proceedings had “failed to act in a fair and impartial manner,” including by not properly instructing grand jurors on the procedures for calling additional witnesses.

The prosecution now has the option of presenting the case to a new grand jury.

Amber Fayerberg, a lawyer for Mr. Busfield, said in a statement that her client was “relieved and grateful,” and would be ready to defend himself again if prosecutors decided to bring a new case. “He is ready because he is innocent,” she said.

Nancy Laflin, a spokeswoman for the local district attorney’s office, said in a statement that her office “is evaluating our options to determine how we will proceed.”

The case stems from the set of “The Cleaning Lady,” a Fox crime drama filmed in New Mexico that Mr. Busfield started directing in 2022.

Prosecutors had accused Mr. Busfield of repeatedly touching the genitals and backside of one of the show’s child actors, who worked on the set alongside his twin brother and who told the authorities that he was 7 and 8 years old at the time.

Since Mr. Busfield’s arrest in January, his lawyers have tried to disprove the allegations. They have accused the boys’ parents of manufacturing the accusations after the children’s roles in the show were recast in 2024.

The lawyers publicly released audio recordings in which both of the boys told the authorities that Mr. Busfield had not touched them inappropriately. They also pointed to an independent investigation by Warner Bros., which co-produced “The Cleaning Lady,” that cited an interview with the show’s lead actress, Élodie Yung. She said the boys’ mother told her after their recasting that she would “get her revenge against Tim Busfield.”

Ever since the allegations of abuse and counterclaims by Mr. Busfield’s lawyers have become public, the boys’ parents and a lawyer who has represented them have not responded to requests for comment.

In dismissing the indictment, Judge Montano pointed to problems with how a prosecutor had responded when several grand jurors asked to hear from witnesses whom the prosecution had not called. The judge wrote that the prosecutor had made the process of calling new witnesses seem more onerous than it was, leading the jurors to abandon their requests.

“These actions are not in line with either the letter or the spirit of the grand jury laws,” Judge Montano wrote in the order.

The jurors asked for at least one witness by name, Alan Caudillo, who was sitting in the courthouse ready to testify, according to court filings. But he was not called. Mr. Caudillo, who was the lead director of photography on “The Cleaning Lady,” had said in a sworn affidavit that the children had been closely supervised on set and had never been left alone with an adult.

Mr. Busfield rose to prominence as an actor in the 1980s, when he starred in the television series “Thirtysomething,” a drama about a group of young professionals in Philadelphia. He later landed roles in “The West Wing” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” and had stints as a director on television shows such as “Lipstick Jungle” and “The Night Shift.”

Mr. Busfield testified at his own grand jury proceedings, addressing a polygraph examination that he underwent around the time of his arrest. Results of the test that were entered into the court record indicated that he had answered truthfully when denying that he had ever touched the boys’ “intimate parts.”

During the contentious grand jury proceedings, the prosecutor questioning him pointed to his long career as an actor, asking, “You know how to take fiction and make it real, correct?”

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