Defense: Prosecutors offered Baldwin a plea deal, then withdrew the offer

Mar. 15—Prosecutors offered actor and producer Alec Baldwin a plea deal but withdrew the offer before his deadline to decide on it and then "abruptly" informed his lawyers they'd be presenting his case to a grand jury, new court documents allege.

One of the documents filed this week in the First Judicial District Court — a defense motion seeking sanctions against special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis — says Morrissey informed Baldwin on Oct. 5 the state intended to seek an indictment against him, "but that, before doing so, it was offering Baldwin a plea deal identical to the petty misdemeanor deal accepted by Dave Halls."

Morrissey said Baldwin had until Oct. 27 to accept the deal, according to the motion. But 10 days before then, she and Lewis retracted the offer.

The motion was among hundreds of pages of exhibits Baldwin's attorneys filed Thursday in support of their motion asking the court to dismiss a count of involuntary manslaughter against him in connection with the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

The defense attorneys argue the prosecutors broke the law by not presenting information favorable to Baldwin to the grand jury that later indicted him.

The filings pull back the curtain on parts of the grand jury proceeding and reveal details of the proposed plea for Baldwin and other behind-the-scene communications in a criminal case that has spawned media frenzies locally, across the nation and even internationally.

Hutchins died after being struck by a bullet from a gun Baldwin was holding during a walk-through of a scene on the Rust movie set south of Santa Fe.

State prosecutors filed criminal charges tied to her death against Baldwin, assistant film director David Halls and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. They said Gutierrez-Reed had brought live rounds on the set and loaded one of them into Baldwin's revolver. Halls failed to check the weapon properly before the scene, prosecutors said, and Baldwin pointed the weapon at Hutchins and pulled the trigger.

Halls pleaded no contest early in the case to a charge of negligent use of deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of probation.

A Santa Fe jury convicted Gutierrez-Reed of involuntary manslaughter earlier this month, and she is awaiting sentencing in April in the Santa Fe County jail.

Baldwin has been charged in connection with the incident twice, first in January 2023 by First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies. Special prosecutors later dismissed the charge, citing the need for more investigation, and then the grand jury indicted him in January 2024.

The actor has said he didn't pull the trigger on the revolver and entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of involuntary manslaughter. He is scheduled to stand trial in July.

However, his defense attorneys are asking the court to dismiss the case against him, saying special prosecutors assigned to handle the case stacked the deck against him by not properly conducting the grand jury proceeding.

The defense team argues prosecutors refused to present exculpatory evidence to grand jurors and violated the confidentiality of the proceeding by leaking information to members of the media, even after being ordered by the court not to do so.

Baldwin's team of lawyers filed 10 batches of exhibits Thursday. Among them: The target letter the state sent to Baldwin; Halls' deposition; and grand jury motions, which typically don't become public because grand jury proceedings are confidential.

One of the grand jury-related filings details what the defense says were Morrissey's violations of court orders not to disclose details of the grand jury proceedings.

Not only did Morrissey speak to a member of the press about a sanctions motion, she did it within hours of the motion being filed and later lied to the court about it, the defense argues in a motion.

The motion includes a statement from defense attorney Lucas Nikas, who said a few hours after he notified special prosecutors about the sanctions motion, around 10 p.m. Nov. 20, he received two phone calls from NBC that he did not answer.

When he returned the calls the next morning, he said in the document, a journalist from the television network told him Morrissey had called the night before and read her substantial portions of the motion.

"She also said that Morrissey yelled at her for publishing Morrissey's statements disclosing the grand jury information" and "threatened her with subpoenas," Nikas wrote in the document, dated Dec. 15, 2023.

"It is beyond the pale, plus some, for the State to violate the Court's order, violate the Court's order again by disclosing details about Baldwin' sanctions motion to NBC, lie to the Court about what actually occurred, and then threaten and intimidate the journalist with the power of the State for exercising the media's First Amendment rights," Nikas wrote.

Morrissey responded to a request for comment in a text message Friday:

"Our response will be filed with the court in 14 days," she wrote. "As you know we are not permitted to make out of court statements about pending motions and would appreciate it if you would stop asking us to violate the Rule of Professional Conduct by commenting."