Actor Alec Baldwin sued New Mexico prosecutors and sheriff’s office officials on Thursday alleging a “malicious” prosecution against him for the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western movie Rust.
The action against special prosecutor Kari Morrissey and others is among at least a dozen civil lawsuits filed over Hutchins’s death, which shocked Hollywood and sparked calls for an overhaul of firearms safety on movie sets.
The lawsuit, filed in a Santa Fe court, followed the dramatic dismissal of Baldwin’s case during his July manslaughter trial in the New Mexico capital.
A judge ruled the special prosecutor and sheriff’s office deliberately withheld evidence from Baldwin on the source of a live round that killed Hutchins.
For the best part of three years, New Mexico officials pursued Baldwin for “political” and “personal” goals in a “conspiracy” to bring him to trial, Baldwin’s attorneys say in the complaint, which seeks financial damages via a jury trial.
“Defendants must now be held accountable for their malicious and unlawful pursuit of Baldwin,” they wrote in the complaint.
Actions ranged from special prosecutor Andrea Reeb’s comment that the case could benefit her political career as a Republican state representative to Morrissey presenting “false and incomplete” testimony to win a grand jury indictment, they said.
Prosecutors anticipated lawsuit
Morrissey said prosecutors had long known the actor would file a retaliatory civil lawsuit.
“We look forward to our day in court,” she said in a text message.
Reeb and the Santa Fe sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Ukrainian-born cinematographer died when Baldwin pointed his pistol at her, cocked it and possibly pulled the trigger as they set up a camera shot on a movie set near Santa Fe, his lawyers said.
The gun, a reproduction 1873 single-action army revolver, fired a live round inadvertently loaded by Hannah Gutierrez, the movie’s weapons handler. Gutierrez was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March and sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Baldwin, also a Rust producer, has always said live rounds should not have been allowed on set and he was not responsible for weapons safety.
His lawsuit focuses on the decision by Morrissey and sheriff’s office officials to file evidence on the source of live rounds under a case number different from that of the Rust case.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed charges of involuntary manslaughter against actor Alec Baldwin, in New Mexico. His defence lawyers accused Santa Fe law enforcement of hiding evidence of the source of the live round that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021, failing to list the rounds in the Rust investigation file or inform the defence lawyers of their existence.
New Mexico First Judicial District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer tossed the case on grounds that “willful withholding of this information” came “so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching prejudice.”
Morrissey denied wrongdoing.
Baldwin must now prove the defendants are not protected by state law providing immunity to officials sued for conduct within the scope of their duties.
