Alec Baldwin’s Lawyers File Motion to Dismiss ‘Rust’ Charges: ‘Enough Is Enough’
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Alec Baldwin’s lawyers filed a motion on Thursday to dismiss the charges against the actor in connection to the accidental shooting on the set of Rust.
Baldwin, who again pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter back in January, faces a tentative trial start date of July 10. Baldwin previously pleaded not guilty to the same charges in February 2023, and the case was ultimately dismissed two months later. However, after new prosecutors re-indicted Baldwin this past January, his attorneys are again seeking the dismissal of the charges.
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In the motion, CNN reports, Baldwin’s attorneys said that prosecutors “publicly dragged Baldwin through the cesspool created by their improprieties—without any regard for the fact that serious criminal charges have been hanging over his head for two and a half years.”
The lawyers also accused prosecutors of leaking evidence to the public and incorrectly defining involuntary manslaughter during grand jury instructions. “Enough is enough,” they added. “This is an abuse of the system, and an abuse of an innocent person whose rights have been trampled to the extreme.”
Last week, a jury found Rust’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the Oct. 21, 2021, on-set accident where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed by the prop gun Baldwin was using, which also injured director Joel Souza while rehearsing a Rust scene. She faces 18 months in prison when sentenced in April.
SAG-AFTRA also recently issued a statement defending Baldwin and criticizing the New Mexico prosecutors’ decision to re-charge the actor. “To the extent that the charges filed on January 19 are based on an accusation of negligent use of a firearm predicated on this or any actor having a duty to inspect a firearm as part of its use, that is an incorrect assessment of the actual duties of an actor on set,” the actors’ union wrote in a statement.
“An actor’s job is not to be a firearms or weapons expert. Firearms are provided for use on set under the guidance of multiple expert professionals directly responsible for the safe and accurate operation of that firearm.”
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