‘Signs of Scorching Prejudice’ Doomed the Case Against Alec Baldwin
"A high-pressure manslaughter case against a movie star turned into an interrogation of the prosecution’s conduct.
While dismissing the involuntary manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin on Friday, the judge did not hold back.
She delivered a searing criticism of the prosecution and state law enforcement officials who oversaw the case, declaring that they had intentionally and deliberately withheld from the defense evidence related to the fatal shooting on the set of the film “Rust.”
“If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching prejudice,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said.
The judge’s decision to end the case against Mr. Baldwin — without the option for the prosecutors to revive it — was the conclusion of a shocking day at the Santa Fe County Courthouse, in which a high-pressure trial against a movie star turned into an interrogation of the prosecution’s conduct. And it came after a series of missteps by different teams of prosecutors left Mr. Baldwin in legal limbo for more than two years.
Shortly before the case was thrown out, the lead prosecutor, Kari T. Morrissey, took the unusual step of calling herself to the witness stand to defend how she handled the situation when a batch of live rounds with a possible connection to the “Rust” shooting was brought to the local sheriff’s office in March.
Law enforcement officials testified on Friday that they had inventoried the evidence under a separate case number from other “Rust” evidence. Defense lawyers said they were not told about the ammunition despite asking for all ballistic evidence in the case.
It has never been certain how live ammunition got onto the set of “Rust,” resulting in the death of the movie’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, a rising talent with a young son who was killed on Oct. 21, 2021, when a gun Mr. Baldwin was rehearsing with suddenly fired. The defense had argued that the provenance of the live rounds, which were supposed to be banned on the set, was a more important question than how Mr. Baldwin was handling the gun when it fired.
It is unclear whether the evidence that was withheld would have changed the course of Mr. Baldwin’s case, but Judge Marlowe Sommer found that its suppression had meant that the defense was “not in a position to test the state’s theory as to the source of the live rounds.”
Outside the courthouse, Ms. Morrissey said that she respected the judge’s ruling but still believed that the “importance of the evidence was misconstrued by the defense attorneys.”
“There is absolutely no evidence,” she said, “that any of that ammunition is related to the incident involving Ms. Hutchins.”
It was far from the first time that Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers have complained about the state’s conduct.
The original manslaughter charge against Mr. Baldwin, which carried more potential jail time, was downgraded because it was filed under a law that did not exist at the time of the fatal shooting. It was later dropped altogether as prosecutors considered forensic evidencesurrounding the gun.
The defense also objected to the fact that the original special prosecutor overseeing the case, Andrea Reeb, was serving as a state legislator at the same time, saying it violated the State Constitution. (In an email later made public, she wrote that her involvement in the case “might help in my campaign lol.”) She stepped down, and a new prosecution team led by Ms. Morrissey took over.
In the months before the trial, the actor’s lawyers sought to get the case dismissed several times, accusing prosecutors of improperly presenting the case to the grand jury and noting that F.B.I. testing broke internal components of the gun.
None of the arguments stuck — Judge Marlowe Sommer found that the state had been within the law each time — until the revelations about the withheld evidence.
“You’ve given them more than enough opportunities, your honor,” Luke Nikas, one of Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers, told the judge in court on Friday. “This is not the first time, it’s not the second time, it’s not even the third time. It’s time for this case to be dismissed.”
Tensions had long been high between Ms. Morrissey and Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers. While Ms. Morrissey was on the stand on Friday, things got even more personal.
“The truth of this matter is, you don’t like Mr. Baldwin very much, do you?” another of the actor’s lawyers, Alex Spiro, asked her.
“That is absolutely untrue,” Ms. Morrissey replied. “I actually really appreciate Mr. Baldwin’s movies. I really appreciated the acting that he did on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ And I really appreciate his politics.”
When the case was dismissed, Mr. Baldwin, who was facing up to 18 months in prison, wept, embraced his wife, Hilaria, and left the courtroom. His lawyers have said that since the shooting he had lost “numerous job opportunities and associated income.” He put his estate in the Hamptons up for sale. And he recently announced that he would be doing a reality show on TLC with his wife and their seven children.
The judge’s decision on Friday centered on ammunition that a man named Troy Teske brought to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office on the day that the “Rust” armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. She had loaded a live round into the gun before it was handed to Mr. Baldwin.
In a hearing after the judge sent the jury home for the weekend, the prosecution shared footage of Mr. Teske — a retired police officer who is friends with Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s stepfather, a well-known Hollywood armorer — showing up to the sheriff’s office in March. Mr. Teske, who had been on Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s defense witness list but was not called to testify, said he had ammunition that he believed was related to the “Rust” case.
Ms. Morrissey had known that Mr. Teske stored ammunition for the armorer’s stepfather, she testified, but dismissed the idea that the rounds were relevant to the case. A photo, she said, seemed to show that they did not resemble the live rounds that were found on the “Rust” set after the fatal shooting.
But she testified that she had not seen the rounds from Mr. Teske in person until Friday morning, when, in an extraordinary moment, the judge asked to examine them inside the courtroom alongside the prosecution and defense. Three of the rounds, Ms. Morrissey acknowledged, resembled the ones found on the “Rust” set.
Ms. Morrissey said she had not realized that the evidence had been put under a separate case number, but under questioning by the judge, Cpl. Alexandria Hancock, the lead investigator in the case, said Ms. Morrissey had been present for the decision.
Ms. Morrissey’s appearance on the witness stand opened her up to pointed questioning from defense lawyers who have long railed against the prosecution as misguided.
When Mr. Spiro asked if she told witnesses that she would “teach” Mr. Baldwin “a lesson,” she vehemently denied it, adding, “I made every effort in this case to resolve this case with your client in a very favorable way for him.”
Mr. Spiro asked if she had ever called Mr. Baldwin an “arrogant prick” to a witness. “I don’t believe I did — I don’t recall,” she said, challenging him to name the person, which he did not.
The other special prosecutor, Erlinda O. Johnson, resigned earlier Friday, saying she believed that the case should have been dismissed because of the undisclosed evidence.
“Prosecutors not only owe a duty to the people, but to the defendants accused of crimes as well,” she said in an email. “The prosecution must always be above reproach.”
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