Alec Baldwin sues prosecutors from dismissed ‘Rust’ case

Alec Baldwin has opened a new chapter in the Rust legal saga.

Alec Baldwin in November 2024.

Getty

The 30 Rock star filed a civil lawsuit against prosecutors and investigators from his previous criminal manslaughter trial in Santa Fe on Thursday. The complaint alleges malicious prosecution and defamation during the manslaughter case and also accuses the defendants of intentionally mishandling evidence in the case, which stemmed from the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western film Rust.

The lawsuit claims the defendants pursued the case “blinded by their desire to convict Alec Baldwin for all the wrong reasons, and at any cost.”

Among the defendants are special prosecutor Kari Morrissey and Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, as well as the 1st Judicial District Attorney’s Office, the Santa Fe County Board of Commissioners, and investigators from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.

“Defendants sought at every turn to scapegoat Baldwin for the acts and omissions of others, regardless of the evidence or the law,” the lawsuit claims. “This included Defendant Andrea Reeb, a special prosecutor who used the prosecution of Baldwin to advance her simultaneous run for the New Mexico Legislature. It included Defendants unlawfully charging Baldwin with an enhancement to increase the potential sentence from 18 months to five years, even though the enhancement was not enacted until after the incident. It included Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey, who wanted to teach Baldwin ‘a lesson’ because she deemed him to be an ‘arrogant prick.’ And it included her extracting an indictment by manipulating the evidence she presented, and chose not to present.”

“Most notably, it included certain Defendants’ intentional concealment of exculpatory evidence and then lying from the witness stand during trial about their coverup,” the lawsuit continues.

Baldwin seeks punitive damages “to the fullest extent permitted by law” because the defendants “were motivated by evil motive or intent and involved a reckless or callous indifference to Baldwin’s constitutionally protected rights.” In addition to punitive damages, the actor demands a trial by jury and asks for “general and/or compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial for all injuries suffered” and attorney’s fees and related suit costs.

“Criminal prosecutions are supposed to be about the search for truth and justice, not to pursue personal or political gain or harass the innocent,” Baldwin’s lawyers Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro commented in a statement to EW. “Kari Morrissey and the other defendants violated that basic principle, over and over, and trampled on Alec Baldwin’s rights. We bring this action to hold the defendants accountable for their misconduct and to prevent them from doing this to anyone else.”

Morrissey told Entertainment Weekly in a statement, “In October 2023 the prosecution team became aware that Mr. Baldwin intended to file a retaliatory civil lawsuit. We look forward to  our day in court.”

Representatives for Carmack-Altwies did not immediately respond to EW’s requests for comment.

Hutchins died on Oct. 21, 2024, after a gun in Baldwin’s hand discharged live ammunition. The Beetlejuice actor was first charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023, but those charges were later dropped in April of the same year; however, in January 2024, Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter once more, and he pleaded not guilty.

In July, Baldwin’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case after new evidence was introduced that they had not had the chance to review. The evidence was ammunition that an associate of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed brought to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, and Morrissey insisted that she hadn’t seen this ammo until the day it was presented in court.

Judge Marlowe Sommer granted the motion to dismiss, as the Brady disclosure mandates that the prosecution provide all relevant evidence to the defense, thus ending the case without a verdict. “The state’s willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate,” the judge said. “There is no way for the court to right this wrong.”

Prosecutors announced they were dropping their plans to appeal Sommer’s decision in December 2024. “Despite its disagreement with the court’s decision, the FJDA remains steadfast in its mission to uphold justice,” Carmack-Altwies said in a statement at the time.

In a separate case, Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March 2024. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Baldwin has also been involved in a number of other Rust-related legal proceedings prior to Thursday’s suit. Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins, filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against the actor and other crew members in February 2022 on behalf of himself and the couple’s 9-year-old son, Andros, that ended in a settlement. Baldwin then sued Gutierrez-Reed and other Rust crew members for negligence in November 2022. The parents and sister of Halyna Hutchins then sued Baldwin for negligence in February 2023.