Alec Baldwin has filed a lawsuit against the prosecutor who pursued him in court over the Rust tragedy.
Back in July, the judge dismissed Baldwin’s manslaughter case — with prejudice, meaning that the prosecution may not refile.
The special prosecutor pushed to appeal the decision, continuing that fight until late December. It didn’t work; judges do not like when you commit Brady violations.
It was an odd prosecution. And, according to Baldwin’s newly filed lawsuit, it was deliberately malicious.
Alec Baldwin is suing special prosecutor Kari Morrissey and others
In his civil lawsuit, Alec Baldwin is accusing multiple prosecutors and investigators of malicious prosecution and of civil rights violations.
He filed the lawsuit on Thursday, January 9 in the Santa Fe state district court. He specifically names special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, and three investigators from the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office and from the county board of commissioners.
Additionally, his lawsuit includes allegations of defamation. He accuses prosecutors and investigators of intentionally mishandling evidence while pursuing this case against him.
“Defendants sought at every turn to scapegoat Baldwin for the acts and omissions of others, regardless of the evidence or the law,” Baldwin’s lawsuit alleges.
The filing also accuses prosecutors and investigators of targeting the actor for professional or political gain.
A celebrity like Alec Baldwin can be a target for ambitious prosecutors who want to gain reelection or become famous. And, due to his passable impressions of disgraced former and future president Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, Baldwin is certainly a target for a certain flavor of political weirdo.
Some feel that the prosecution distracted from the tragedy of Halyna Hutchins’ death
We should all remember that this began with a senseless tragedy. In October of 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died from a gunshot wound during a rehearsal for the film, Rust.
Alec Baldwin was both the lead actor and a co-producer on the film. For his role, he held a revolver — which he says fired without him pulling the trigger.
This sort of thing can happen on film sets, but a sequence of safeguards must fail catastrophically. In this case, that is exactly what happened.
We’re sure that Baldwin would have liked an acquittal. Ultimately, most people would prefer to have the court rule without question that they are innocent — that the horrible death of a colleague was a tragic accident, and not their fault.
That is not how the trial ended. Instead, the court learned that a man brought ammunition to the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office in March of that year — saying that it could be related to Hutchins’ death.
Prosecutors never informed Baldwin’s team of this new evidence. Baldwin’s attorneys said that investigators “buried” the evidence in another case folder in order to hide it from them. That is a classic Brady violation, and the judge dismissed the case with prejudice.
Will Alec Baldwin win his lawsuit?
To be honest, it’s hard to say — just hours after the lawsuit’s filing — whether Baldwin will triumph. But civil rights advocates on social media have suggested that it’s a good idea.
Look, a lot of people dislike Alec Baldwin. From a voicemail that he left for his daughter years ago to his demeanor in work environments, he’s given people some good reasons. But it’s hard to see how a props tragedy like this makes him a killer.
We don’t claim to magically know the motives of each and every person involved in his prosecution. But there were red flags long before the court uncovered the violation of Brady disclosure. We’re not legal scholars, but at least some parts of the lawsuit may end up having merit.
Alec Baldwin Files Lawsuit for Malicious Prosecution, Defamation was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.