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Alec Baldwin is taking legal action after prosecutors sought criminal charges against him over the death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Baldwin, 66, is accusing Santa Fe, New Mexico, special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey and First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, among others, of malicious prosecution and civil rights violations, per The Hollywood Reporter and The Los Angeles Times.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Mexico on Thursday, January 9, claims that the prosecution team intentionally concealed evidence that would vindicate him of involuntary manslaughter.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants were “blinded by their desire to convict Alec Baldwin for all the wrong reasons, and at any cost. Defendants sought at every turn to scapegoat Baldwin for the acts and omissions of others, regardless of the evidence or the law.”
“Criminal prosecutions are supposed to be about the search for truth and justice, not to pursue personal or political gain or harass the innocent,” Baldwin’s attorneys Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro said in a statement to the L.A. Times. “Kari Morrissey and the other defendants violated that basic principle, over and over, and trampled on Alec Baldwin’s rights.”
“In October 2023 the prosecution team became aware that Mr. Baldwin intended to file a retaliatory civil lawsuit,” Morrissey said in a statement to the outlet. “We look forward to our day in court.”
Baldwin twice faced involuntary manslaughter charges over the accidental shooting of Hutchins in October 2021. Hutchins was killed and Rust director Joel Souza was injured when a prop gun fired a real bullet on the set of the Western movie.
Baldwin, who denied pulling the trigger, was later charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in January 2023 and pleaded not guilty one month later. The criminal charges were dropped in April 2023. However, he was indicted for involuntary manslaughter a second time and headed to trial in July 2024.
The second case was dismissed by First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer last summer. Sommer agreed with Baldwin’s lawyers that prosecutors hid evidence that may have been linked to the fatal shooting.
“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” Sommer told the court, per NBC News. “The sanction of dismissal is the only warranted remedy.”
In December 2024, Morrissey, who sought to reinstate charges against Baldwin, announced that the case against the actor had been dropped due to a lack of support from the district attorney’s office. As a result, Baldwin will no longer face criminal charges over the incident.
“The state’s efforts to continue to litigate the case in a fair and comprehensive manner have been met with multiple barriers that have compromised its ability to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” Morrissey said in a news release, per The New York Times.
The film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March 2024 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Her attorneys’ appeal for a new trial was denied in September 2024.
