Alec Baldwin sues several Rust crew members in effort "to clear his name"
The actor's cross complaint alleges that "More than anyone else on that set, Baldwin has been wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator of this tragedy"
Alec Baldwin has now gone on the offensive in the legal battle surrounding the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Baldwin-produced Western Rust, with Deadline reporting that Baldwin issued a cross complaint tonight accusing four people associated with the filming of the movie with negligence that led to Hutchins’ death.
In his complaint (which you can read here), Baldwin’s lawyers state his desire to “clear his name” in Hutchins’ death, which occurred when a gun the actor and producer was pointing at the cinematographer discharged, with the live round inside also striking director Joel Souza. The suit names Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed (responsible for handling of weapons on the set), first assistant director David Halls (who reportedly declared the gun in question “cold” before giving it to Baldwin), prop master Sarah Zachry (in charge of all props on set, including firearms), and weapons supplier Seth Kenney (as well as his company, PDQ) as defendants, accusing all of them of either negligent behavior, or having knowledge of negligent behavior that they should have brought to the producers’ attention.
Most of these names will be familiar to anyone who’s spent much time reading about the incident, or the spreading legal issues surrounding it—Gutierrez-Reed, especially, has been at the center of questions as to why live rounds were present on the film’s set, and weren’t found and removed. Baldwin’s complaint lays out his narrative of why these four people were responsible for Hutchins’ death pretty succinctly, while also trying to establish that he, personally, had nothing to do with hiring them:
This tragedy happened because live bullets were delivered to the set and loaded into the gun, Gutierrez-Reed failed to check the bullets or the gun carefully, Halls failed to check the gun carefully and yet announced the gun was safe before handing it to Baldwin, and Zachry failed to disclose that Gutierrez-Reed had been acting recklessly off set and was a safety risk to those around her.
As for why he’s lodging his own complaint, Baldwin took a potentially risky step in stating that he’s been, from his point of view, badly hurt by the aftermath of the incident. While acknowledging that, “There can be no doubt that others have suffered from Cross-Defendants’ negligence
far more than Baldwin has”—specifically naming Hutchins and her family—the actor’s lawyers did assert that,
Baldwin must live with the immense grief, and the resulting emotional, physical,
and financial toll, caused by the fact that Cross-Defendants’ negligent conduct, assurances, and
supervision put a loaded weapon in his hand and led him, Hutchins, and everyone else on set to
believe that his directed use of the weapon was safe. More than anyone else on that set, Baldwin
has been wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator of this tragedy…He has suffered physically and emotionally from the grief caused by these events.
Not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about, and suffer from, the events that happened that day. Baldwin has also lost numerous job opportunities and associated income. For
example, he’s been fired from multiple jobs expressly because of the incident on Rust and has been
passed over for other opportunities.
Per Deadline, lawyers for the cross-defendants have not responded to Baldwin’s complaint, which arrived on a federal holiday when the courts were closed. One person who did respond was lawyer Gloria Allred, who’s representing Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, who’s suing Baldwin for negligence herself. Allred pulled no punches, stating that, “Baldwin’s cross complaint is a shameful attempt to shift the blame to others, just as he has done since he fired the fatal shot which killed Ms. Hutchins and injured our client, Mamie Mitchell. He claims that everyone else was negligent and that everyone else is at fault. Mr. Baldwin appears to argue that he is the only one that is truly innocent.”