Alec Baldwin may sue prosecutors over involuntary manslaughter charge
The lawyers of Alec Baldwin are considering “future litigation” against the Santa Fe sheriff and prosecutors over the events of the Rust shooting trial, which ended in a dismissal of the actor’s involuntary manslaughter case.
In two preservation notices, Baldwin’s legal team told Sheriff Adan Mendoza and prosecutor Kari Morrissey that they should “preserve all relevant information in your possession, custody, and/or control” concerning Baldwin’s trial.
As reported by Rolling Stone, the preservation notices read, “Specifically, we request that you immediately take all necessary steps, including preserving all devices, hard drives, emails, text messages, and other electronic communications, to preserve any and all documents, records, electronically stored information […] in connection with the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie, Rust.”
Baldwin’s trial was dismissed last week after he was tried for a single count of involuntary manslaughter. The dismissal arrived following the actor’s lawyers filing an emergency motion that claimed that the trial’s prosecutors had withheld evidence. In addition, seeing as the trial was dismissed with prejudice, it means that the prosecutors cannot re-file their charge against Baldwin.
At the core of the dismissal was the allegation that the prosecutors withheld evidence surrounding Thell Reed, the father of Rust’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who had owned a batch of live ammunition that was collected by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office last spring.
Judge Marlowe Sommer stated that the ammunition would likely have aided Baldwin and his lawyers in questioning the validity of the prosecutors’ consideration of the case and noted that the fact that they had withheld evidence that was favourable to Baldwin.
Sommer said, “The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office and the prosecution failed to disclose the supplemental [evidence] report to the defense and provide the defense an opportunity to inspect the rounds collected into evidence,” Marlowe Sommer said. “The suppressed evidence is favorable to the accused.”
In other news surrounding the Rust trial, Gutierrez-Reed is asking a judge to overturn her manslaughter conviction, seeing as Baldwin’s trial has been dismissed. Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles, claimed there was important evidence that should have been shared before his client’s trial, which he believes would have altered the case.
Bowles recently noted, “How can it be any different with Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s case, with this proven litany of serious discovery abuses?” The intentional withholding of crucial evidence by the State has compromised the integrity of the entire judicial process.”
This is a developing story.
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