New Mexico judge dismisses child sexual abuse claims against actor Timothy Busfield

A New Mexico judge on Friday dismissed child sexual abuse charges against famed Hollywood actor and director Timothy Busfield, finding prosecutors failed to act impartially when presenting the case to a grand jury.Busfield was indicted on four charges of criminal sexual contact of a child in February, over allegations that he touched two children inappropriately on the set of “The Cleaning Lady” TV series while filming in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The actor has strongly denied the accusations of sexual abuse, and his lawyers had sought the dismissal of the indictment.
New Mexico Judge Joseph Montano 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.
“In doing so, the grand jury proceedings were conducted in a manner that violated grand jury statutes designed to protect the structural integrity of our grand jury system and the presumption of prejudice applies,” Montano wrote.
The judge said the main issue is that the grand jurors requested to hear from witnesses that the state did not present and that the prosecutor failed to adequately explain the subpoena requirement to keep evidence from the jury.
“These actions are not in line with either the letter or the spirit of the grand jury laws,” Montano wrote in a six-page order. “To the extent delays may result when the prosecutor disputes evidence requested by grand jurors—after they have been alerted to the evidence without objection—the Court finds the reliability of the grand jury system and the intent that grand jurors be given access to more evidence-as long as it complies with the evidentiary standard ­outweighs the potential delay in proceedings.”
The judge has given the district attorney’s office room to file new charges against Busfield and present the case to a new grand jury.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.

Read Full Article: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/new-mexico-judge-dismisses-child-sexual-abuse-claims-against-actor-timothy?utm_source=justthenews.com&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=external-news-aggregators