Alec Baldwin’s ‘Rust’ case dismissal request rejected
A judge in New Mexico has rejected a request from actor Alec Baldwin and his legal team to dismiss a lawsuit by three crew members of the Rust movie who claim that cost-cutting measures affected the safety on set.
The crew members have also alleged that Baldwin skipped his own compulsory safety training. Chief District Judge Bryan Biedscheid has declined to delay the proceedings of the trial even though Baldwin’s legal team says their client might be at risk of self-incrimination.
Robert Schwarz, an attorney on Baldwin’s legal team, told Biedschied that the trial prosecutors would be able to use evidence from the civil court case in the criminal case if the charges for the latter were ever refiled.
“No protective order can protect him against that. It just can’t happen,” Schwartz said. “So what’s going to happen is Mr. Baldwin is going to assert his 5th Amendment rights, and the plaintiffs are not going to get any discovery in the meantime.”
However, the judge did not agree and said that he would be taking Baldwin’s rights into consideration. A decision is yet to be announced, but Schwartz suggested that it should arrive in the next couple of weeks.
Baldwin is caught up in the legal difficulties because after pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the Rust set in 2021, the gun went off, and Hutchins was killed. The film’s director, Joel Souza, was also wounded.
A series of civil lawsuits followed, including wrongful death allegations from Hutchins’ family. Baldwin and other members of the cast and crew have said that there were poor safety standards in the film.
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