Alec Baldwin wants the involuntary manslaughter charge against him in the Rust case dismissed — because he says the prosecutor is biased!
Per Reuters and others on Thursday, Baldwin’s lawyer Alex Spiro filed new legal docs asking a judge to throw out the criminal case against him. Of course, Baldwin has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (pictured above, inset). Baldwin was holding a gun while rehearsing a scene on the New Mexico set of Rust when the gun went off. A bullet struck and wounded director Joel Souza and then killed Hutchins. Baldwin has claimed that he did not pull the trigger, but simply cocked back the hammer.
Now, the longtime actor is claiming the grand jury process in his manslaughter case was rigged, and he wants the whole thing tossed. Specifically, per BBC News, Baldwin claims the Santa Fe County District Attorney’s Office has been “unfairly stacking the deck” against him. Specifically, the news docs argue that the D.A. trotted out seven grand jury witnesses who were “incredibly biased,” and they unduly influenced the decision to bring charges against the Emmy-winning actor.
Related: Alec Baldwin Gets A BIG Unexpected Defender In Rust Shooting Case!
Specifically, Baldwin and his lawyer argue that three of the witnesses were on the District Attorney’s “payroll,” per the docs. Two more were from the affiliated Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. One was already suing Baldwin in a separate civil case, and thus allegedly biased against the actor for that. And the final one betrayed their biased feelings days after the October 2021 shooting by publicly blaming Baldwin for Hutchins’ death. That last witness, Baldwin’s side argues, supposedly wasn’t even working on the production at the time of the shooting.
Another shocking allegation by Baldwin’s team, per TMZ, involves the FBI testing of the pistol used in the infamous scene. Alec has claimed he never pulled the trigger, as we noted. And initially, prosecutors seemed to agree with him. As you may recall, charges against him were actually dropped last April after prosecutors felt they couldn’t prove he pulled the trigger. However, in January, Santa Fe County re-filed charges against Baldwin after they claimed new testing indicated the gun could have only been fired if the trigger had been pulled. Well, now the 30 Rock star is pushing back against that new allegation.
Specifically, he argues that Santa Fe County’s special prosecutor Kari Morrissey failed to present his side with all the evidence from that new wave of testing. Had they done so, Baldwin alleges, it would have been revealed that the revolver could have been fired without the trigger being pulled when all six rounds were loaded — as was the case on the day of the tragedy. If that is in fact proven in court, that would potentially be a key point in Baldwin’s defense.
In turn, Baldwin accuses Santa Fe County’s special prosecutor Kari Morrissey of prosecutorial misconduct. And he wants the judge to drop the involuntary manslaughter charges entirely! Baldwin’s report slammed the prosecutor, concluding:
“Enough is enough. This is an abuse of the system, and an abuse of an innocent person whose rights have been trampled to the extreme.”
Per Reuters, Morrissey’s team now has two weeks to file a reply. But as of now, unless a judge rules otherwise, Baldwin’s case is set to go to trial on July 10 in New Mexico. Of course, just last week, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death. She has not yet been sentenced, but faces up to 18 months in jail.
[Image via Lu Chau/WENN]
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