Alec Baldwin Plans to Sue Santa Fe Prosecutor, Sheriff After ‘Rust’ Charge Dismissal
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Alec Baldwin’s lawyers have warned the Santa Fe sheriff and prosecutors of “future litigation” over their actions in the Rust shooting trial following the dismissal of the charge against the actor.
In a pair of preservation notices mailed Monday and obtained by Rolling Stone, Baldwin’s lawyers told both the Santa Fe prosecutor Kari Morrissey and Sheriff Adan Mendoza to “preserve all relevant information in your possession, custody, and/or control” related to the trial against Baldwin.
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“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 (‘ESI’), and other materials and data existing in any form whatsoever, that are actually or potentially relevant or relate in any way to the investigation(s) and/or prosecution(s) conducted by the State in connection with the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie, Rust,” the preservation notices stated.
Last week, the judge in the Baldwin trial dismissed the single felony count of involuntary manslaughter against the actor after Baldwin’s lawyers filed an emergency motion alleging prosecutors and investigators withheld evidence. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that prosecutors could not re-file the charge against Baldwin.
“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said in the July 12 ruling to dismiss.
On the trial’s stunning final day, the prosecution was accused of withholding evidence about how a batch of .45 caliber live ammunition belonging to famed Hollywood armorer Thell Reed, the father of Rust’s rookie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, had been collected and booked by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office last March. The evidence was not supplied to Baldwin’s defense either physically or through a supplemental evidence report.
In delivering her admittedly “extreme” ruling, Judge Marlowe Sommer said the live ammunition — surrendered by a friend of Thell Reed — could have helped Baldwin undermine prosecutors’ theory of the case and shore up his defense claim that the fatal shooting was unforeseeable. Judge Sommer said prosecutors “unilaterally withheld” the evidence and that it was both “material” and “favorable” to Baldwin’s defense, the two thresholds necessary for her ruling.
“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. It is impeachment evidence (and) is potentially exculpatory to the defense.”
Due to the actions of the Santa Fe sheriff and prosecutor, who filed charges against Baldwin despite having knowledge of the “suppressed evidence,” the actor’s lawyers are now planning to sue both parties.
In the preservation notices, Baldwin’s lawyers ask for “all communications between and among anyone at the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office (“SFSO”), the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office (“FJDA”), and/or the Special Prosecutor’s Office (“SPO”) related to the Incident,” as well as “All documents, communications, and information referencing or relating to Mr. Baldwin.”
“Should you or anyone in your office alter or delete any of these materials, or otherwise fail to comply with this request, you may face serious consequences, including civil liability, court sanctions, and adverse evidentiary inferences in any subsequent proceeding,” the notices warned.
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