Timothy Busfield told an Albuquerque grand jury that his career is over after he was indicted on child sexual contact charges, saying he has lost work, lost his agency and cannot see a path back. The 69-year-old actor testified for two hours and said, “My career’s done.”
He did not stop there. Busfield told the 12-person grand jury that he is “canceled,” that he has lost TV shows and a movie role, and that “my agency fired me.” He also said he expected the fallout to reach Melissa Gilbert’s career and told jurors he hoped that would not happen.
The testimony gives the sharpest public window yet into the case that began in February, when Busfield was indicted on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child tied to accusations that he abused two child actors, twin boys, on the set of The Cleaning Lady. The indictment says the charges relate only to one of the two boys, a narrowing that matters because it leaves part of the account outside the formal case even as the broader allegations continue to trail him.
Busfield tried to frame the accusation as a retaliation campaign. He told jurors the boys’ parents reported him to police out of revenge after he cut them from the cast of The Cleaning Lady, and he said the family was deprived of $30,000 per episode. He also told the grand jury, “My children, grandchildren, everybody in my life is done because of these false allegations for money and for revenge.”
That account clashes with the testimony presented by Albuquerque Police officer Marvin Brown, who summarized 10 interviews for the grand jury. Brown said Busfield first denied touching the boys and later said he had tickled them. Brown also said, “He would tickle them and get them pumped up for the next set.” Busfield, by contrast, said he was never alone with the boys, that crew members were nearby and that he had “never, ever” been inappropriate with a child.
The broader timeline also cuts against a clean version of events. In November 2024, University of New Mexico Hospital reported concerns that the boys had been groomed when their mother brought them in saying they had been sexually abused, but the hospital found no evidence of abuse and the boys told police that month they had not been abused. In September, the boys told therapists they had been abused. Those shifting accounts may loom over the case as prosecutors decide how to press ahead after the grand jury hearing.
For Busfield, the practical stakes are immediate and blunt. If the indictment holds, it is not just a legal label; it is the kind of charge that can push casting, representation and insurance decisions away before a verdict is reached. That is why he spent so much of his testimony describing what he says he has already lost. What happens next is the legal step that follows grand jury testimony: the case moves into the court process that decides whether the indictment stands and how the charges proceed toward trial.
