SANTA FE, N.M. (Court TV) — Newly released documents are giving an inside look at grand jury proceedings in New Mexico, where actor Timothy Busfield took the stand in his own defense to fight allegations against him.
Director and actor Timothy Busfield appears at a hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Albuquerque, N.M. (AJ Skuy for Fox News Digital Pool Photo via AP)
Busfield, 69, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor under 13 in New Mexico. The allegations stem from alleged acts committed on the set of the television show “The Cleaning Lady,” which was filmed in New Mexico and for which Busfield was an actor, director and executive producer.
Busfield has filed a motion to quash the grand jury’s indictment, arguing that Assistant District Attorney Neal Speer, who presented the case, misstated the law and did not facilitate the proceedings fairly.
At the grand jury hearing, which began on Feb. 5, 2026, Speer called just one witness, lead detective Marvin Cook Brown, before Busfield was brought in to address the jury. Immediately after he was sworn in, the motion said, Speer “framed Mr. Busfield as a skilled and professional performer” before launching into an “extensive and combative cross-examination.” The motion alleges that Speer improperly framed a polygraph test that Busfield had passed as being inadmissible, suggesting that the defendant “defeated the test based on his professional ability to ‘Take fiction and make it real.'”
“I didn’t do this,” Busfield told the panel. “I have never, ever been inappropriate in any way, physically, sexually, in any way with a child, a prepubescent little boy. I’m not attracted to that. I’ve never been attracted to that.”
Busfield testified that the two children in question, twins identified only as SL and VL in court documents, had worked on his show as actors, but had not been asked to return after a COVID-related delay in filming. When a younger child replaced the boys, he said the parents were upset. Busfield described the children’s parents as “strapped for money and…they wanted revenge.”
The actor told the grand jury that while he maintains his innocence, the allegations have effectively ended his career. “I’m done,” he said. “I’ve lost TV shows, a movie they’ve digitally replaced me — that’s years ago that I shot — they pulled me from. My agency fired me. Thank God, I’m at retirement age. But I’m done.”
Busfield tried to tell the grand jurors about other witnesses who had come with him to the courthouse and were prepared to testify on his behalf, saying that they were on set and had never seen any inappropriate activity. The transcripts reveal that the grand jurors asked about hearing from those other witnesses; Speer told them that legally, to hear from them, the grand jury would have to unanimously decide to call them, at which point the entire panel would have to return the next week to hear the testimony after formal subpoenas were issued. The grand jurors elected not to issue any subpoenas or return on a later date before issuing a true bill on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor.
In the motion seeking to quash the grand jury’s indictment, Busfield also noted that an independent investigation into the allegations by Warner Bros. found no evidence to corroborate the claims; the grand jury was not given access to those documents.
