Alec Baldwin decides to sue the “Rust” team for malpractice to clear his name

After reaching a financial settlement with the family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who died in the accidental shooting of ‘Rust’, and just days before the Santa Fe District Attorney announced his intentions after the police investigation, Alec Baldwin has decided to sue the film crew for negligence. The complaint was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and includes a large number of photographs and emails featuring the person responsible for the on-set guns, Hannah Gutiérrez Reed; assistant director, David Halls; the owner of the property they were recording at, Sarah Zachry; and Seth Kenney, the arms dealer, and his company. All of these are defendants.

“This tragedy occurred because live bullets were delivered on set and loaded into the gun. Gutierrez-Reed did not carefully check the bullets or the gun, Halls failed to carefully check the gun, yet announced that the gun was safe before delivering it to Baldwin. Zachry did not disclose that Gutierrez-Reed had been acting recklessly off set and was a safety risk to those around her.”, says the complaint filed by Baldwin’s legal team.

The lawsuit is also based on the numerous professional opportunities that the actor would have lost after the accident and thus seeks to definitively clear his name: “He was fired from several jobs due to the ‘Rust’ incident and moved on to other projects as a direct result of the negligence of defendants Gutierrez-Reed, Halls, Kenney, PDQ and Zachry.” And is that the text also speaks of the personal consequences that Baldwin suffered: “More than anyone else on that set, Baldwin was wrongly perceived as the perpetrator of this tragedy. With these lawsuits, Baldwin seeks to clear his name and hold defendants accountable for their misconduct.”

On the day of the accident, the cross-question reads: “Hutchins lost his life and his young son lost his mother. Producer Joel Souza was shot in the shoulder and endured physical and emotional pain. While in no way comparable, Baldwin has to live with the immense pain and the emotional, physical and financial toll, caused by the negligent conduct, guarantees and vigilance of the counter-defendants who put a loaded weapon in his hand”.

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On the other hand, Mamie Mitchell, the script supervisor of ‘Rust’, also filed her own complaint against the production in 2021, claiming physical and emotional injuries and assuring that it was the actor’s responsibility to control the weapon, which had been previously informed that it was a dangerous scene and that, in fact, it would not even have been necessary for the script that no shots were fired that day. Baldwin tried unsuccessfully to have a judge removed from this suit, and he himself did not include Mitchell in his case.

Although it has nothing to do with her, on this new move by Baldwin, Mamie Mitchell’s attorney said it is nothing more than “a shameful attempt to shift the blame onto others, just as it has done since he fired the fatal shot which killed Mrs Hutchins and wounded our client”. For this woman, Gloria Allred, Baldwin must take responsibility for his actions: “I’m not suggesting that others don’t also bear some responsibility for what happened. However, if you look in the mirror, you will see the person we believe bears the greatest responsibility for what happened that tragic day on the set of ‘Rust. ‘ in New Mexico.”