Baldwin gets away with murder…
In a dramatic turn of events, Alec Baldwin‘s involuntary manslaughter trial for the fatal 2021 shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was dismissed Friday over “critical evidence” that a New Mexico judge ruled had been concealed.
“The state has repeatedly made representations to defense and to the court that they were compliant with all their discovery obligations,” New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said in her ruling from the bench just now. “Despite their repeated representations, they have continued to fail to disclose critical evidence to the defendant.”
Full article, HERE from Deadline. And another article, HERE from Fox.
Welp, this is one F-ed up deal, to put it mildly. I’m not a conspiracy theorist normally, but I can’t help but wonder ‘who’ got paid off to let this one go…
I don’t blame the judge for what she did, she really had no option, IMHO.
New Mexico makes a LOT of money off movies, $794 million in a year from mid 2022 to mid 2023. As poor as the state is, and the fact that Lujan is a hard core Dem, explains a lot (to my mind). She doesn’t want to lose money like Georgia did, much less the prestige of having all those movies/shows made there, and the face time with the actors.
So, letting one get away with this to benefit the whole state probably figured into ‘somebody’s’ equation. But I feel for the Hutchins family, and the others.
The interesting part will be what happens to Reed. Will she now be set free for the same reason???
Your thoughts?
The reason appears to be prosecutorial misconduct, which if true, the Judge did what is right. I listened to a presentation on OJ, they had slam dunk evidence and still the LA Police had to throw in a glove as made up evidence. It cast everything else into doubt. When the prosecutor or the police aren’t the good guys they deserve to lose.
Not sure it was the Judge getting paid off here, sounds more like the prosecutor.
If people cannot see that America has a different justice system for those wealthy enough to buy their way out of criminal charges then they are blind. This case shows the different way the wealthy are treated and get away with murder. As to the other defendant I cannot see how she can be kept in prison after this Judge left Baldwin off.
The prop master/gun wrangler was guilty because she’s the one who brought a real gun to a movie set, and then loaded it with live rounds. Baldwin is guilty of hiring an unqualified moron with a shady history, but you can’t really blame the dancing monkey for performing.
She was convicted in a completely separate trial. Different circumstances are different.
All of the guns, despite being called props, were functioning firearms (until the FBI broke the one Baldwin fired). Reed did bring live ammo onto a clean set and, from what I saw, allowed the rounds to get intermingled on both the cart as well as on gun belts. She f’ed up by the numbers.
I was actually watching the trial and the prosecutor kept dropping the ball. Plus the main complaint was some ammo dropped off by a friend of the armorer’s father a couple of months ago that got filed under a different case number. It was The Glove of his case and was either an egregious f(** up or was done on purpose.
None of it had anything to do with the guy who actually fired the gun or the fact that he didn’t follow the rules to ensure it was clear and thus caused a woman’s death.
Morrissey replied, insisting that she likes a number of Baldwin’s movies, SNL appearances and “his politics.
His politics quote tells you why he walked.
It was manslaughter, not murder. But he’s guilty in the court of public opinion.
I used to enjoy “Hunt for Red October” but I’ll never watch that movie or any other associated with him again.
A primary rule is that when someone hands you a weapon you check it. It is not rude to do this, it is rude not to. As far as the “justice system” legal system, it is better to free the guilty than to imprison the innocent. If the state cannot properly prove its case then the case is not proven at all. Sometimes aggravating but always necessary.
WordPress ate my longer response. Aesop at racounterreport says that Hollywood/any similar ones are in a situation where if you want realistic effects, the Four Rules cannot be used, and they’ve developed an alternate set. In the Rust set, the violations rivaled the length of the code.
Key takeaway: The actor is NOT supposed to check if the blanks are real. That’s the armorer’s job, and the actor is assumed to not know the difference. (Damned few would…)
Baldwin is a horrible person, but not guilty. NM DA thought there was a chance of fame and fortune. Got the infame part right.
Consider the disastrous national news (for Dem’s…. debate, interview) this is a *distraction* – or a first attempt at one. At they didn’t start off with a war.
everybody seems to forget one thing:the guy in charge is where the buck stops. baldwin is guilty, not because he didn’t check the gun or b/c he pulled the trigger but b/c he’s the boss. he hired the sketchy armorer after the real armorer left over safety concerns on the set. they were target shooting with live ammo between takes among other things. baldwin the producer hired the daughter of a friend/investor to stand in b/c he’s cheap but was required by law. the lady that was killed was somewhat at fault too. allegedly she wanted close in shots of the gun with bullets visible instead of dark holes. which idiot loaded live instead of dummy is still in question. it was a f’up from the ground up. that said this sudden appearance of ammo looks odd, but doesn’t negate baldwin’s ultimate responsibility. as to the girl, well she’ll serve out her sentence. she’s not part of the team.
1) Baldwin was one of twelve (at last count) producers on the show. He hired no one. Reed was the only armorer ever hired. Baldwin’s only “producing” responsibility was providing the story the screenplay was based on. In return for that, he was given a “producer” credit. All of this is public record.
2) The person who hired the Prop Tart was the Unit Production Manager. Who wasn’t named Alec Baldwin either. (You could look it up.) Anyone hiring such a babe-in-the-woods as an armorer should have been prosecuted for gross criminal negligence.
3) The producer who supervises the UPM and shepherds a production day-to-day is the Line Producer. Also not named Alec Baldwin. That @$$clown should be prosecuted for not firing the criminally incompetent and grossly negligent PropTart after the first AD with a blank on that set days prior to the fatal incident.
4) The evidence the prosecution deliberately tried to suppress may even provide reasonable doubt about the source of the live rounds, as apparently the Local Yokel they were purchased from may have mixed live rounds with dummy rounds, and made it impossible for even the PropTart to tell the difference without test-firing all dummies to ensure there were no “bangs”. Something an actual qualified and experienced armorer should have and would have done, but something that never occurred to the pink-haired drug-addict novice this piece of low-budget schlock hired for a task far beyond her non-existent qualifications.
5) This deliberate prosecutorial misconduct probably entitles her to a new trial, perhaps even a belated declaration of a mistrial and dismissal of all charges against her with prejudice, ensuring her guilty verdict is set aside, and she walks too!
6) It smells like the impetus of this whole witch hunt was to try and “blame Hollywood” for what may well have been ultimately sourced to an incompetent local schmuck, and good buddy to investigators, who were just covering for him and trying to collect Baldwin’s scalp as a trophy by making him the patsy.
7) The judge had total and sole discretion as to dismiss the trial with or without prejudice. She took the opportunity to dismiss it with prejudice, as all evidence suggests the same D.A.’s office that bungled the investigation, bungled the first trial, bungled the weapon by having it destructively tested, and willfully and deliberately suppressed the exact evidence of who brought the live rounds to the set, which would have made any trial, of even the incompetent armorer, an uphill battle.
8) This is exactly the third fatality from a firearm on a movie set in 130+ years of movies. Hollywood safety procedures work every single time you don’t hire retards to supply the ammo, load the prop guns, and check that loading before handing the gun to any actor.
This production effed up all three of those tasks, and 95% of that lays at the feet of the PropTart who obtained and supervised (poorly) the weapons and ammo. The rest is between the guy (Halls) who already admitted he didn’t check her loading as required for literally decades by custom and practice, and the UPM that hired both those idiots.
Swap out any other actor in history, living or dead, for Baldwin, under the same conditions, and you get the same tragic result.
Fire the Prop Tart, buy ammo from reputable Hollywood prop houses instead of The Bubba Doofus Bullet Emporium in Hootenholler, and have a second propmaster or assistant armorer double-checking the loading, not some prop-wannabe busybody jackass assistant director who has no business handling any props on set, let alone firearms, ever, and the fatal incident never happens. Every. Single. Time.
The Motion Picture Safety Bulletins are written in blood. The first two, by no coincidence, deal with Weapons, and Ammunition. My best count is that there are about 72 specific rules for using both on set. The PropTart broke about 65 of them. Baldwin broke zero.
In order to be negligent, you have to have a duty.
Actors have no such duty to load, supervise, or “check” any firearm or ammunition on any set, ever.
That job is to be left strictly to professional subject-matter experts.
This show put idiots into jobs intended for seasoned pros.
And, surprising no one, they killed someone.
Everyone in Hollywood knew in about a day whose job bore the responsibility for this incident, and they knew it wasn’t Baldwin.
And then the NM version of the Keystone Kops stumbled into town, and screwed the pooch on this whole deal so hard it’ll never walk straight.
Total number of live rounds that are ever supposed to be on a set: zero.
Total number of live rounds that are ever to be loaded into weapons on a set: zero.
Total number of bullets that are ever supposed to fly out of prop guns on a production set:zero.
Total number of these things that were Baldwin’s job to monitor, accomplish, supervise, “check” or any other half-assed euphemism for same: zero.
This prosecution of Baldwin should never have happened.
He’s an arrogant anti-gun World Class @$$hole, and a sh*tty human being, by all accounts.
But he’s a legally innocent arrogant anti-gun World Class @$$hole in this incident.
This dismissal righted a 2 1/2 year wrong and ongoing legal travesty.
The prosecutor should be horse-whipped.
For a metric f**kton of mistakes, starting with ever touching this case, but especially for trying to collect prestige scalps to make a name for herself, rather than trying to administer justice.
QED
Thanks! You said it far better than I did.
I agree with RCPete about the actors duties on the set. IF the gun is to be fired with blanks, the actor would expect to see cartridge rims in the gun.
The reason that there are prop masters on the set is because actors often can’t be trusted to tie their own shoes. The usual Hollywood gun use rules have kept sets mostly safe for nearly 100 years.
Those rules were not followed. Deaths resulted.
Liability attached. The prop master, certainly, unless overruled by the director, and maybe even then. Asshole as producer, maybe, but it’s a stretch.
Politics and publicity were a part of this case from the start, and the Prosecutor screwed every pooch available, in every way imaginable, and while the judge obviously took political pleasure in the dismissal, if the evidence was that badly corrupted, that was the only result possible.
I have to say I would never expect an actor/actress to know Cooper’s rules of gun safety. The sub set of actors with real world firearm experience is small compared to the number as a whole.
If you handed the keys to a car on a movie set, the actor would assume it was safe to drive as detailed in the script. If the brakes fail and he ran over the camera man instead of stopping, would he be charged with a crime?
Saying that, as the producer of the film, Baldwin IMHO is guilty of operating an unsafe workplace in a civil suit. I hope it hurts.
All- Thanks, obviously there are a ‘number’ of different takes on this one. I say murder because he pulled the trigger while pointing it at a live person. THAT violates every rule in EVERY book. I’ve talked to actual armorers who tell me they stress that one should NEVER point any weapon at a live person on set, ‘prop’ guns included.
They’re quite simply lying.
Period.
There’s no pretty way to put that, but it’s absolutely true.
And the scene they were rehearsing called for Baldwin’s character to draw, cock, and fire the gun right at the camera, with the lens looking right down the muzzle.
Which, because the camera crew had walked off the production that very morning – because industry-standard safety procedures weren’t being followed – was being operated by DP Hutchins, with director Souza standing right behind her.
Neither of them dove for cover, because they all knew, from weeks earlier, that was exactly what the actor (Baldwin) was supposed to do in that scene, including the rehearsal.
Anyone can argue, in hindsight, that was a dumb scene, but the director didn’t cut it out. Everyone knew it was supposed to happen. Even though he may try to retroactively wish otherwise, Baldwin was performing his moves exactly as they were outlined in the script.
What wasn’t supposed to happen was a real bullet flying out the muzzle, at any point in time, on any set, ever. Period.
But any propmaster or armorer who maintains that prop weapons are never pointed at live people on sets is talking out their other end, peddling fairytales, whoppers, and pure B.S., and they know it.
Ever seen the classic Bond movie intro?
In that case, the camera should have died. The scene you described is he aims at the camera.
But that didn’t happen. That makes it immaterial. Material is he was screwing around. With a gun. A long added gun.
B-b-b-but he’s an actor. He’s not supposed to know, that’s why there are people watching over him. They are supposed to know.
But he aimed, cocked, fired the weapon. Twin people shot, one fatally, because of his negligence.
No he wasn’t “screwing around”.
The most you can allege is bad aim.
And to be negligent, you have to have a duty to do something, which you then failed to perform.
You could look it up.
Baldwin had no duty on that set besides exactly what he did.
The people entirely and solely responsible were the ones who failed their duties six dozen ways.
None of them was named Baldwin.
Sux for Baldwin-haters, but unfortunately for people’s precious feeeeewings, the judge’s decision was both fair and just.
That’s the whole point of a justice system.
The D.A., OTOH, is guilty of hiding material facts in an investigation. Everyone involved in that should be suspended or fired, and disbarred.
But that would probably leave them without any D.A.’s in that city for some good time.
From what I’ve read, Baldwin was considered a loose cannon on the set, and dangerous with firearms. That’s every reason to carefully examine any firearm he touches to insure safety. That’s where the professionals come in, and they failed in this task.
Baldwin may escape criminal charges, but in the civil court he’ll lose. He was the one that pulled the trigger and liable. Being ignorant will not be an excuse. Personally, he may escape, depending on the legal definition of the production company. Still, it will be expensive to defend, and lead to exposing all the really stupid things he’s done in the past.
Justice is a figment of your imagination. White, conservative go to jail. Liberal or POC not so much. What has happened since January 6th that has inspired confidence in the justice system? When the chosen ones can ignore the rule of law while others praying in front of an abortion clinic are sentenced to prison.
OJ Simpson all over again?
Civil suit commencing in 5, 4, 3…
I think his career is over whether Baldwin had proximate responsibility or not.
Prosecutorial misconduct should get the prosecutor in prison and fined the way they are Trying to screw the defendant.
The state has repeatedly made representations to defense and to the court that they were compliant with all their discovery obligations,” New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said in her ruling from the bench just now. “Despite their repeated representations, they have continued to fail to disclose critical evidence to the defendant.”
Gee,looks Ever so Much like what Trump has been facing.
I’ve never seen a judge flat out dismiss a case because of something like this. Especially not “with prejudice” meaning he cannot be tried again.
My suspicion is that this was a setup. They needed to try him to give the appearance that they’re diligently seeking justice, but they didn’t want to piss off hollywood or this particular VIA (very important a$$hole) so they ginned up this excuse to give him a free pass.
At the most this traditionally would have resulted in a mistrial, not an outright dismissal. Prosecution corrects their errors and tries again with a new jury. Most cases I’ve seen it didn’t even go that far…the prosecution gets a stern talking to, the trial continues and let the appeals court figure it out later.
The tell will be: will there be any consequences for the prosecutors who violated the rules of evidence so blatantly they got the case dismissed with prejudice? If not, I’d say the fix was in.
No.
The deliberate lies to conceal exculpatory evidence not only merited dismissal of the case against Baldwin, they will probably result in armorer Gutierrez-Reed getting a similar dismissal, and walking as well.
And everyone in this case, including the victims of the shooting, now has cause for a whopper of a civil suit against that city, police force, and D.A.’s office, and they all have lawyers on speed-dial.
A case beyond a reasonable doubt is that the local yokel, who sold Reed the bullets, had mixed live rounds with dummies in such a way the two were indistinguishable, meaning the D.A.’s office lied to cover up for a local clown known to local law enforcement as a “buddy”, and instead tried to pin this whole thing on the out-of-towners from Hollywood, for points and prestige.
The D.A. investigators and lawyers who did this should be disbarred and referred for prosecution; this rises to misprision of felony and criminal conspiracy all by itself.
Going from criminal investigator or prosecutor to defendant, for the same case, takes a really special kind of stupid.
If that doesn’t happen, the fix is that the local authorities are crooked as a dog’s hind leg, which was pretty clear the moment they mis-prosecuted this case the way they did.