{"id":885182,"date":"2026-10-17T05:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T05:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/885182\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T05:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T05:42:08","slug":"child-sex-abuse-charges-against-actor-timothy-busfield-dismissed-by-judge-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/885182\/","title":{"rendered":"Child sex abuse charges against actor Timothy Busfield dismissed by judge | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">A state court \u2060judge in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/newmexico\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Mexico<\/a> has dismissed charges of child sexual abuse against West Wing actor and director Timothy Busfield, saying the prosecution did not act in a \u2060fair and impartial manner during grand jury proceedings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Judge Joseph Montano said prosecutors could pursue new charges against Busfield.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The actor has strongly denied allegations \u2060of improperly touching two young boys \u2013 twin brothers \u2013 on the Albuquerque set of Fox TV \u200bdrama The Cleaning Lady.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">A spokesperson for \u200cthe second judicial district \u200cattorney office of New Mexico said the office was evaluating its options.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The twins reported that \u200cthe alleged contact had occurred over a two-year period, when they were aged seven and eight, during breaks in production, prosecutors said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jan\/12\/timothy-busfield-charged-child-sexual-abuse\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">criminal complaint filed in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Busfield, a director and producer of The Cleaning Lady, was charged in February in a four-count grand jury indictment that accused the actor of groping one of the \u200cboys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">He steadfastly professed his innocence, calling the allegations against him \u201clies\u201d, and his attorneys asked for the charges against him to be dismissed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In Friday\u2019s \u200bruling, Montano said the prosecution did not properly instruct members of the grand jury on procedures for requesting testimony from additional witnesses. In part, the prosecutor incorrectly informed the grand jurors that at least eight of them would have to agree to wanting to hear \u2060from a witness for that person to be called.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThe prosecuting attorney failed \u200bto act in a \u200bfair and impartial manner,\u201d Montano wrote, \u200badding that the lawyer\u2019s actions \u201chad the practical effect of unilaterally withholding witnesses \u200brequested by the \u200cgrand jurors\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Busfield, 69, \u200bis best known \u200bfor his prime-time television roles as a White House reporter on the NBC political drama <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/the-west-wing\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The West Wing<\/a> and as an advertising agency executive on ABC ensemble series Thirtysomething. He also appeared in the baseball film Field of Dreams\u201d starring Kevin Costner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A state court \u2060judge in New Mexico has dismissed charges of child sexual abuse against West Wing actor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-885182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}