Actor Alec Baldwin has sued New Mexico prosecutors who tried to jail him for the fatal shooting of cameraman Halyna Hutchins on the set of his film Rust.
The civil lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution and civil rights violations was filed Thursday in Santa Fe District Court, where a judge dismissed his charge of involuntary manslaughter.
He alleges defamation and alleges that prosecutors and investigators deliberately mishandled evidence during their investigation into the shooting.
“Defendants, while acting under color of law, conspired to obtain a baseless indictment against Baldwin and to maliciously procure or further the trial and conviction of Baldwin, thereby violating Baldwin’s constitutional rights violated by their improper use of the criminal process,” the complaint alleges. according to The Wrap.
“Defendants attempted at every opportunity to scapegoat Baldwin for the actions and inactions of others, regardless of the evidence or the law.”
The lawsuit names Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey, Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and investigators from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office as defendants.
It comes just weeks after the district attorney’s office announced that would not be the case appeal against a court’s decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the Oscar-nominated actor, 66.
Actor Alec Baldwin has sued New Mexico prosecutors who tried to jail him
It comes just weeks after the district attorney’s office announced it would not appeal a court’s decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the Oscar-nominated actor.
Morrissey in December withdrew her appeal of a decision to dismiss charges against Baldwin in Hutchins’ death. She died during a rehearsal on the set of Rust.
“Today’s decision to deny the appeal is the final vindication of what Alec Baldwin and his attorneys have said from the beginning: this was an unspeakable tragedy, but Alec Baldwin committed no crime,” Baldwin’s attorneys Luke Nikas and Alex said Spiro at the time.
“The rule of law remains intact in New Mexico.”
The decision to withdraw the appeal reinforces Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer’s mid-trial decision to dismiss the case based on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense.
Prosecutors had said they found the ammunition brought into the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in March to be unrelated and unimportant to the case, but Baldwin’s defense team claimed in court that investigators were “burying” the evidence.
Judge Sommer said at the time that dismissal was “the only just remedy” amid the legal issues and that there was “no way for the court to correct this error.”
“The late discovery of this evidence has affected the fundamental fairness of the proceedings,” the judge said The Hollywood Reporter.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins tragically died on the film set in October 2021
The tragic incident took place on set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico
The district attorney’s office said that under state law, the New Mexico attorney general would have transferred the appeal but “did not intend to exhaustively pursue the appeal on behalf of the plaintiff.”
“As a result, the state’s efforts to continue litigating the case in a fair and comprehensive manner have encountered multiple barriers that have compromised its ability to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” local prosecutors said.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of Rust, was pointing a gun at Hutchins during an on-set rehearsal when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
After the case was dismissed, Baldwin regained some of his positions in Hollywood.
“I really believe that with the communication I’ve had lately, things are coming back to the way I work, and I’m happy about that because I have seven kids,” he said in a candid conversation on David’s podcast Duchovny. , Fail better from Lemonada Media.
Alec Baldwin is pictured hugging his lawyer Alex Spiro at the end of his involuntary manslaughter trial
The district attorney’s office said the New Mexico attorney general would have transferred the appeal under state law but “did not intend to exhaustively pursue the appeal on behalf of the plaintiff.”
“But I also enjoyed the fact that so much of this case is unknown because we haven’t had a full trial. The judge dismissed the case. She ruled it was dismissed with prejudice, which I’m very grateful for because it was, I think, a very informed decision on her part,” he said.
“But if I had gone all the way and gotten a verdict, that would have been a little better because a number of people on a jury would have considered the facts and we would have presented so much more. None of that is being presented because the case is over.”
However, a judge had previously sentenced film weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to up to a year and a half in state prison on a count of involuntary manslaughter for Hutchins’ death.
Prosecutors accused Gutierrez-Reed of unknowingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of Rust, where it was expressly prohibited, and of failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
Meanwhile, Assistant Principal and Safety Coordinator David Halls pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.
Several civil lawsuits have also been filed against the producers of Baldwin and Rust, including a complaint from Hutchins’ parents and sister.