The West Wing actor Timothy Busfield was indicted on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child on Friday, according to NBC News.
Busfield, 68, is accused of engaging in inappropriate conduct with two child actors while working on the set of the TV series The Cleaning Lady.
The conduct is alleged to have occurred over two years, from 2022 to 2024, when the young actors—twin boys—were just seven-years-old.
Busfield turned himself in to authorities in New Mexico last month, where he remained behind bars for days before being released on his own recognizance.
On Friday, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office pressed the case forward to trial, in a move Busfield’s attorney told NBC News was “not unexpected.”
“As the saying goes, a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich,” Larry Stein said in a statement to the outlet. “What is deeply concerning is that the District Attorney is choosing to proceed on a case that is fundamentally unsound and cannot be proven at trial.”
He added, “This prosecution appears driven by something other than the facts or the law. Mr. Busfield will fight these charges at every stage and looks forward to testing the State’s case in open court—where evidence matters—not behind closed doors.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Busfield’s attorneys for additional comment.
Busfield has been married to Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert for almost 13 years. She wrote a letter to the judge in support of her husband while he was detained, calling him “the strongest moral compass of any human I have ever known” and pleaded for his pretrial release.
According to court documents, one alleged victim told investigators that Busfield touched his genitals on multiple occasions and instructed them to call him “Uncle Tim.” The allegations were eventually reported to Child Protective Services by the boys’ mother.
Busfield’s attorneys argued last month in their opposition filing that the allegations are a revenge plot to retaliate after the children were cut from the show. His attorneys also claimed the boys’ mother was overheard saying she “would ‘get her revenge against Tim Busfield’” and that the kids’ “stage parents” have “extraordinarily checkered pasts” with a “well-documented history of fraud and dishonesty.”
Bernalillo County Deputy District Attorney Savannah Brandenburg-Koch argued during last month’s detention hearing that the allegations against Busfield are part of a pattern, citing past allegations of inappropriate touching and sexual assault against the actor that did not result in criminal charges.
Following the accusations, NBC pulled a January episode of Law & Order: SVU, in which Busfield was set to appear.
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