Dramatic Twist as Manslaughter Trial of Alec Baldwin is Dismissed

July 12, 2024 10:02 PM

The prosecution of Alec Baldwin for manslaughter in the death Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film Rust ended in a dramatic fashion when it was revealed that the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense. In a final attempt to salvage the case the lead prosecutor, Kari Morrissey, took the stand as a witness. Law and Crime Network explains what happened
posted by interogative mood (37 comments total)

This whole tragedy sucks. From what I understand, Baldwin qua actor really isn't to blame here. Baldwin qua producer though was responsible for the non-union set and in charge of the people.who did get hired. It's a mess and I wish it hadn't ever happened.
posted by Carillon at 10:42 PM on July 12 [17 favorites]

So it looks like not only did the prosecution withhold evidence, they actively tried to hide it under a different case number. The judge was absolutely right to dismiss with prejudice.
posted by azpenguin at 10:42 PM on July 12 [22 favorites]

It was just stupid to bury this evidence, giving it to Baldwin’s lawyers probably wouldn’t have hurt the prosecution’s case. I think what sealed it was probably the fact that this was the latest in a series of mistakes in turning over evidence. If they were holding this back what else did they hide. I won’t be shocked if the weapons master gets her conviction tossed as well, even though this was evidence her lawyers found and never presented at trial.
posted by interogative mood at 11:05 PM on July 12 [5 favorites]

> I won’t be shocked if the weapons master gets her conviction tossed as wel

My reading of the article was that the bullets weren't turned over until after her conviction, so I don't see how they'd impact her conviction.
posted by constraint at 11:18 PM on July 12 [1 favorite]

According to this ABC News story, Gutierrez's attorney does plan to appeal on the basis of this evidence being withheld.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 11:23 PM on July 12

Worth a — I mean, worth doing.
posted by Orthodox Humanoid at 11:29 PM on July 12 [13 favorites]

For any of my fellow video-haters, an article about these same events is here at the Guardian:
posted by adrienneleigh at 11:38 PM on July 12 [18 favorites]

It's going to make a Hollywood movie at some point.

Which Baldwin plays Baldwin ?
posted by Comstar at 11:54 PM on July 12 [7 favorites]

This yet another demonstration that Brady doesn't go far enough. What's needed is a) full file disclosure laws, as prosecutors cannot be trusted to act against what they perceive as their own self interest, and b) significant penalties against prosecutors who pull this shit, as the point needs to be made that withholding evidence will have direct, deleterious effect on a prosecutor's career.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:19 AM on July 13 [26 favorites]

I'm confused. HGR got convicted because bullets were in the gun and she didn't know how it happened? Or they think she put them in? Troy, her dad's friend, finds the bullets and says they come from the prop supplier? This means HGR is innocent? Is the prop supplier going to be prosecuted?
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:42 AM on July 13 [4 favorites]

b) significant penalties against prosecutors who pull this shit, as the point needs to be made that withholding evidence will have direct, deleterious effect on a prosecutor's career.

This feels so much like a deliberate attempt at denying justice that it should have consequences for more than just career. Perversion/obstruction of justice is a criminal charge, no?
posted by Dysk at 12:52 AM on July 13 [5 favorites]

Perversion/obstruction of justice is a criminal charge, no?

Yes, a criminal charge that needs to be brought by a prosecutor.
posted by Garm at 12:56 AM on July 13 [12 favorites]

Baldwin qua producer though was responsible for the non-union set and in charge of the people.who did get hired.

He may still face (financial) consequences by way of a civil lawsuit against him by the victim's widow.

Still, the prosecutor tried to make a name for herself and, in a just world, would deserve to face charges, if not be disbarred.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:21 AM on July 13 [5 favorites]

This story is really bonkers. The other special prosecutor resigned! Over lunchtime! Apparently literally just walked out in the middle of the court's day and didn't come back!
posted by adrienneleigh at 1:22 AM on July 13 [12 favorites]

I wonder how often the prosecutors hide evidence or engage in other misconduct against defendants who don’t have a legal team with the resources to look closely at the prosecution’s case. The brazenness with which the prosecutor misbehaved makes it seem like this was just business as usual; no reason to expect anyone would look into it.
posted by TedW at 3:08 AM on July 13 [30 favorites]

This story is really bonkers. The other special prosecutor resigned! Over lunchtime! Apparently literally just walked out in the middle of the court's day and didn't come back!

The other special prosecutor said she wanted to dismiss the case because of the violations, but Morissey was insistent on going forward with it. That seemed like the wiser option, because hoo boy did Morissey have a disaster of a day in court.

I stayed up way too late watching a livestream of the hearing on YouTube with legal commentary. I worked in a courtroom a long time ago, and 99% of the time when the press reported on something I witnessed they made it seem more dramatic than it actually was.

This is a case where no article I've seen fully captures how bonkers this hearing was. Morrisey took the stand even though Baldwin's attorneys didn't request it and the judge actively tried to warn her not to. On cross-exam, Spiro asked about how many of Morissey's staff had resigned (including the other special prosecutor), and got into some of Morissey's disclosure failures and dishonest representations to the court. She was just as bad at being cross-examined as her witnesses were. If this were a drama, I'd roll my eyes at how improbable everything was.

I'm not expecting much in the way of consequences for the prosecutorial/police misconduct, but at least less-affluent defendants' attorneys will have some prime impeachment material for any cases the cops are involved in. That's the only good thing that I think will come of this.
posted by creepygirl at 3:29 AM on July 13 [17 favorites]

What’s crazier is that the prosecutor Morrissey was a special prosecutor brought in just for these cases. She is normally a defense lawyer, although she was a federal prosecutor previously working in the tax division iirc.

I don’t know about a movie but Baldwin is making a reality TV show for TLC.
posted by interogative mood at 3:30 AM on July 13 [2 favorites]

Baldwin qua producer though was responsible for the non-union set and in charge of the people.who did get hired.

He was not. He had a courtesy producer title, essentially, a common practice.
posted by tavella at 4:06 AM on July 13 [7 favorites]

My reading of the article was that the bullets weren't turned over until after her conviction, so I don't see how they'd impact her conviction.

She’s probably going to get the conviction overturned. Her attorney is filing pretty much immediately and the legal folks think this is getting wiped out.
posted by azpenguin at 5:08 AM on July 13 [1 favorite]

What I notice was how pissed the judge looked. She was sitting there with a Are you really messing with me? look on her face.

In a school environment when the teacher has that look on their face any kid with any situational awareness sits down, mumbles something that sounds like "Sorry" and shuts up. The kids who double down are the privileged ones who don't recognize that the teacher could possibly have any authority over them. The ones who, caught out in a lie, confidently assert that the other kid was lying. "I was in the classroom, she was in the hall, so she's the one that pulled the fire alarm!"

They nod, and smile, confidently expecting to always be believed in a he-said-she-said dispute. And meanwhile the teacher not only saw them in the hall, but the only reason they saw them in the hall is because they recognized the particular kid's giggling and came out to see what crap they were pulling this time. Low status kids don't pull this crap. Ordinary kids didn't used to pull this crap. It's only the ones who expect some high status parent to go all Mama Bear when their little darlings pull crap like that who lack the situational awareness to realise that they they are telling brazen lies to someone who knows they are telling brazen lies and is thinking, I'm going to expel you and make sure I never see you again.
posted by Jane the Brown at 6:05 AM on July 13 [8 favorites]

I wonder how often the prosecutors hide evidence or engage in other misconduct against defendants who don’t have a legal team with the resources to look closely at the prosecution’s case.

I've stoped wondering. The purpose of a system is what it does.
posted by AlSweigart at 6:23 AM on July 13 [24 favorites]

There needs to be a level of auditing of prosecutors that is at least at the level of GLP/GMP pharma manufacturing and testing. That also means they need the equivalent in Good Prosecutorial Practices codified in the Code of Federal Regulations. Published notices against offices that infer no confidence in a prosecution, available (or mandatorily read to) juries.

We have a system that is completely off the leash and incarcerating more people per capita than anywhere else, if that stat still holds from a few years back.
posted by Slackermagee at 6:46 AM on July 13 [5 favorites]

Lots of films are shooting here in Santa Fe right now and if this means that none of them are using any type of explosive rounds… that's a victory. This whole shooting was a mess from the beginning and I'm not sure what the point of charging Baldwin was.
posted by jabo at 8:04 AM on July 13 [3 favorites]

I've been side-eyeing this thing since finding out that David Halls--the assistant director who'd had complaints filed against him for incidents on previous films, including one in which a firearm discharged unexpectedly on set, wounding a crew member, and about whom someone said "That man is a liability. He's going to fucking kill someone someday" (all from the Wikipedia article)--had pled out.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:07 AM on July 13 [8 favorites]

There were some weird prosecutor shenanigans right at the beginning of this case that I might trawl back through the LA Times archives for too.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:40 AM on July 13 [1 favorite]

I have two minds about this. One is that this entire indictment/prosecution/trial was the surface turbulence of political currents passing over a submerged reef. That the indictment/prosecution/dismissal was the result of behind closed doors problem solving. The populist appetite for juicy Baldwin/Elite/Lib/Whatever bashing against the pecuniary interest in keeping/growing New Mexico film production plus a salting of not wanting to be laughed at as some kind of corrupt Hicksville of a state, accommodating and dominating each other till finally somebody(s) get thrown under the bus and "we can all move on" without having to trouble a jury for "justice." The other is, of course, the ocam's razor conclusion of hubris and incompetence.

Fundamentally, being a dilettante, I don't actually have any idea what the basis for the prosecution or the defense was. I have no idea what the relevance of the undisclosed evidence is beyond a vague feeling that it was all irrelevant. Clearly when somebody dies of a violent homicide the belief is that somebody has to do some time, the only ambiguity being where exactly the buck stops, especially in our litigious culture where somebody is always responsible, after all we live in the land of "that was no accident."
posted by Pembquist at 9:26 AM on July 13

This whole shooting was a mess from the beginning and I'm not sure what the point of charging Baldwin was.

The sense I get is that it was one part embarrassment over not realizing that the assistant director (who, as it was was mentioned, has a history of these issues, along with being an abusive tyrant in other regards) had the sort of low cunning that keeps weasels out of jet engines and realized that the early snitch gets the plea deal; and one part thinking that a high profile prosecution would look great in moving her career forward.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:34 AM on July 13 [5 favorites]

What a shocking failure of the justice system. I don't know if Baldwin should be held criminally responsible or not but clearly something terrible happened on that set and a trial is the process to figure it out.Or it should be if the prosecutor is competent and honest.

Someone I knew was murdered in New Mexico in 2016. Absolutely awful case. The alleged killer confessed. The prosecutors in Santa Fe then mishandled the case so badly that it got dismissed because the right to a speedy trial had been compromised. Absolutely no one won there thanks to the incompetence of the New Mexico judicial system. Details here.
posted by Nelson at 10:45 AM on July 13 [3 favorites]

The sweetheart deal to the 1st AD (who is both the person who is in charge of safety on the set and the person who handed Baldwin the gun with the declaration it was cold) was particularly ridiculous given that the prosecutor was attempting to get Baldwin a 5 year mandatory minimum sentence the first time he was charged, until his lawyers pointed out that the shooting occurred before that law passed. It was clear from the start that the prosecution was about getting a big Hollywood name so as to promote the careers of said prosecutors.
posted by tavella at 11:34 AM on July 13 [7 favorites]

As this YouTuber explains the other element of this is that Seth Kelly probably used his status as a former cop to insert himself into the investigation and destroy evidence that would of shown he supplied love rounds to the set of Rust and those rounds looked like the inert rounds. It’s another example of cops protecting their own.
posted by interogative mood at 1:44 PM on July 13 [3 favorites]

Well, I did not plan on watching 4.5 hours of courtroom video, but here we are. As was brought up on the live stream, this case even had a second Brady violation come up in the hearing of the first Brady violation! Lawyers taking the stand, like it's Law & Order! "Is there an objection or is she just talking?" Wild stuff.

The cops on the stand were super shady and evasive. The one who took the rounds and spoke with Teske - he seemed to be sticking to a line of "it's not evidence until I say it's evidence". Is there any validity to that? Like if he just turned him away, without taking a statement, would that have affected the outcome?

Ugh, and the lead investigator saying she tried to contact him repeatedly but had no written or electronic records of that. So clearly lying, and dodging questions with "which phone are you asking about?" Any of them, all of them, lady!
posted by Horselover Fat at 2:23 PM on July 13 [4 favorites]

A single prosecutor who does shit like this is so much more dangerous and corrosive to society than an entire pack of serial killers, much less someone like Alec Baldwin, who was at worst negligent.

Alec Baldwin is getting sued by the victim's parents. He deserves that; a jury trial to decide whether he owes them a shitton of money is appropriate consequences for this. (Also his lifelong trauma, which he is clearly going to have, is an appropriate natural consequence.) Putting him in a cage because of someone else's criminally negligent fuckup was never going to be justice, even if the prosecution hadn't also been outright fucking liars.
posted by adrienneleigh at 3:13 PM on July 13 [3 favorites]

I wonder how often the prosecutors hide evidence or engage in other misconduct against defendants who don’t have a legal team with the resources to look closely at the prosecution’s case.

We will never know, because public defender’s offices aren’t fully funded enough for us to know. But my suspicion is “a lot”.
posted by corb at 3:33 PM on July 13 [4 favorites]

Yeah, the Seth Kenney thing was also suspicious. In the immediate wake of the shooting you had five people: the person who supplied the prop bullets (SK), the prop master who destroyed evidence in concert with SK (Sarah Zachry), the 1st AD/head of safety who was careless through the shoot and did not check the weapon properly and handed it to Baldwin with the information that it was cold and safe, the armorer who did not properly check the prop bullets... and the actor who used the weapon he had been told was a safe prop. The prosecutor gave immunity to the first two, a sweetheart misdemeanor and probation deal to the third, a relatively light charge to the armorer, and tried to get the actor a minimum 5 year sentence. That's definitely not someone who was interested in justice.
posted by tavella at 5:14 PM on July 13 [10 favorites]

I was interested in the theory about charging Baldwin based on his status as a producer and found an article from 5 days ago that says the judge ruled that his status as producer was not relevant to the trial.

This part of the article is retroactively hilarious: Prosecutors want the judge to preclude accusations of “prosecutorial misconduct” and “personal attacks.”
posted by creepygirl at 8:30 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

As a former defense lawyer I am quite biased but I will tell you that prosecutors bury evidence all the time. How are the defense supposed to find out? It usually happens on a fluke, or when the defense is very well-funded and grabs up all kinds of discovery that the prosecution was too lazy to sort out...

Prosecutors are supposed to be concerned with justice, but they are usually concerned with either judgeships or political careers.

And most defendants aren't the kind of people who can get in their way.
posted by allthinky at 5:43 PM on July 16 [3 favorites]

As expected, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's lawyers have filed a motion for new trial or dismissal for discovery violations.

The motion is here:

Facts that were new to me:

When Baldwin's attorney cross-examined Kari Morrissey, she stated a former paralegal resigned at her request. This was a lie. The paralegal resigned "unilaterally after sending several emails to the DA's office about his working conditions and the conduct of Ms. Morrissey that lead to his unilateral decision to resign." The paralegal emailed this to HGR's counsel and executed an affidavit.

Not surprisingly, Morrissey also lied when she represented to the Court that Gutierrez-Reed's counsel did not want the Teske rounds because they felt that they inculpated HGR.

One of the other discovery violations that came up in the Baldwin hearing (the Third Haags report) is even worse than it sounded there; the expert's testimony at HGR's trial directly contradicted his conclusions in the Third Haags Report, but because the state withheld it from HGR's attorneys, they were unable to impeach him with that report (or develop a sabotage theory re: damage to the gun).

The state also withheld a Seth Kenney interview that sounds somewhat supportive of HGR, and approximately 900 pages relating to experts that were provided to Baldwin's attorneys but not HGR's. The HGR attorneys are still working through the 900 pages and may supplement this motion if they find other violations.
posted by creepygirl at 10:27 PM on July 16 [3 favorites]