The manslaughter trial against Alec Baldwin over the fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has been dismissed. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer threw out the case over how police and prosecutors treated a handful of bullets, which they failed to turn over to the defence.
“The state is highly culpable for its failure to provide discovery to the defendant,” Judge Sommer said. “Dismissal with prejudice is warranted.” The dismissal came as a surprise as gasps were said to be heard in the courtroom and Baldwin was congratulated by his family and supporters.
More to come…
Once it came out that there were live rounds found in other places that were never mentioned until now… yeah that’s not a good look. And while I understand the argument that he’s the producer therefore responsible for anything that happens on set they’d be setting a standard that wasn’t applied in an awful lot of past on set accidents.
Which has nothing to do with this decision. This what about due process by the police, nothing to do with actual fault.
As producer he should still hold the final culpability of anyone and anything on site. It would be like letting the owner of a company walk on a technicality, he’s still responsible in the end.
It would be like letting the owner of a company walk…
So standard practice
In Canada there’s laws that can hold the owner accountable for stuff like this.
Sorry I thought I was making it clear that the dismissal was due to the negligence of the police, but even if it had gone to trial it was still an uphill battle to claim his responsibility as producer. If the armorer could be proven to have been a bad hire it could have fallen on him, maybe, but if the production could prove that they took reasonable steps to see if she was qualified but were sadly mistaken that would make it hard to prove negligence.
Personally I would rather it had gone to trial and given the full chance under the law to prove innocence or guilt, dismissal with prejudice is not the same thing as a finding of not guilty even if the result is the same.
It’s interesting seeing the law differences, in Canada this would be considered criminal and anyone up to the owner can be held accountable. I think it’s only been used and upheld a few times though.
Edit, looks like it’s been used more since I checked last.
As producer he should still hold the final culpability of anyone and anything on site. It would be like letting the owner of a company walk on a technicality, he’s still responsible in the end.
What you’re describing would be civil liability, not criminal. It would potentially be criminal if a supervisor knew one of their direct reports was doing something illegal and condoned it or did nothing, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here
In Canada it would be criminal and not civil.
It comes down to who has direct authority over someone though iirc.
Unless they get off on this due process as well, they would also be accountable. As producer he’s responsible for anyone he hires, if he’s not confident, he should verify their work. Thats what being in charge means. You’re responsible, you can’t just pay someone else and say they are, that’s negligence, since if they failed, you failed in your vetting.
The bullets were turned over by retired Arizona police officer Troy Teske, who is said to be a close friend of Thell Reed, the father of Rust armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Crime scene technician Marissa Poppell accepted the bullets, but they were not inventoried with the Rust case. Some of the rounds Teske handed over were Starline brass casings with nickel primers which matched the ones that killed Hutchins
Withholding that kind of evidence is unconscionable. It tainted the entire investigation. They basically forced the judge to dismiss the case.
It looks like the armorer was a local and her dad’s cop buddies hid evidence to try to help her. At least one prosecutor signed off on it, because she testified that she didn’t turn over the evidence because she thought it was irrelevant.
There is no universe where live ammunition recovered from the scene is irrelevant.
Yep, you can pull that shit with your average guy with a public defender, but if they have a good lawyer you’ll get caught.
Just shows how there’s a justice system for the wealthy and an incarceration system for the rest of us.
I’m sorry, there were other live rounds kicking about on the set? How many live rounds does one workplace require? I know how many that one did.
And the armorer is the one who owned the live ammunition. Makes sense she’s in prison, but she was so young that I thought, if Alec Baldwin had any liability, it should probably be related to hiring someone who’s barely a step past being a child as armorer on a set with real guns.
