RUST Armorer Accuses Alec Baldwin of Undermining Safety On Set
By Movieguide® Contributor
Alec Baldwin may face trial again for the fatal RUST shooting as prosecutors investigate whether he cut down on safety to save costs.
While all charges against Baldwin were dropped earlier this year due to a lack of evidence, the prosecution has now moved to restart the case after RUST armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s legal team suggested that safety training was cut to save on the production budget.
While the RUST production legal team claimed this inquiry was an “obvious phishing expedition” to reopen the case against Baldwin, the court sided in favor of the prosecution and ordered the RUST production team to turn over new documents.
“Ms. Gutierrez asserts that it is her belief these requests were denied for financial/budgetary reasons,” the special prosecutors said. “This is an appropriate line of inquiry for the State to explore by reviewing the agreements between Mr. Baldwin and the various production companies to determine whether there were financial or other considerations involved in the decision to deny Ms. Gutierrez to work additional armorer days and/or provide additional training days to Mr. Baldwin.”
While Baldwin’s trial had previously been dropped, Gutierrez Reed’s trial has continued as she faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and, according to Fox News, transferring “narcotics to another person with the intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of herself.”
Her legal team, however, claims that the RUST legal team has hidden and withheld information from the prosecution to keep themselves from legal charges.
RUST Movie Productions “needs to stop trying to hide the ball, and to be transparent and forthcoming with relevant information,” Gutierrez Reed’s lawyer, Jason Bowles, said, per the Hollywood Reporter. “It begs the question, why are they trying to hide information.”
New Mexico special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey believes RUST Productions has “obstructed the criminal investigation.”
She says producers “cut corners at every chance” and “hired inexperienced and ill-equipped crew members,” per The Wrap.
Bowles believes that his client has become the scapegoat for the fatal tragedy as the RUST production team attempts to move on. However, if the new investigation shows that the RUST production team did cut corners on safety for the sake of profit, they may again be on the hook for the shooting.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Baldwin’s defense against the crime remains the gun fired while in his hand because of improper modifications, but he did not pull the trigger, Yahoo! reported.
Because the FBI confiscated the gun for their own investigation, the prosecution was unable to disprove Baldwin’s argument, and they dropped the case. But at the time the charges were dropped, the prosecution noted that the charges against Baldwin could be refiled if new evidence related to the gun was uncovered.
“If it is determined that the gun did not malfunction, charges against Mr. Baldwin will proceed,” the prosecution wrote in June.
Through the reconstruction of the gun, the FBI has now concluded that the weapon was not able to fire without the trigger being pulled, placing liability back on Baldwin.
- Content: +3Share:
- Content: +1