Halyna Hutchins’ family files new lawsuit against Alec Baldwin over fatal Rust shooting

The under-siege actor faces a new lawsuit from Halyna Hutchins’ family following the cinematographer’s death on the set of Rust.

Halyna Hutchins family will file a lawsuit against actor Alec Baldwin over the death of the cinematographer on the set of Rust.

Baldwin was formally charged this smonth with involuntary manslaughter over the accidental shooting of Hutchins.

The actor was holding a Colt .45 during rehearsals for the low-budget western film when it discharged, killing Hutchins in October 2021.

Famed lawyer Gloria Allred will be representing the Hutchins family, she announced in a press release, the New York Post reports.

Baldwin settled a civil suit with the family in October but the claims in the new lawsuit are not immediately clear.

A distraught Alec Baldwin lingers in the parking lot outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's offices after being questioned in 2021. Picture: Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican

It comes after Baldwin’s defence team moved to disqualify the prosecutor overseeing his manslaughter case in a stunning legal manoeuvre to declare her as “unconstitutional”.

A motion to disqualify filed lawyer Luke Nikas argues that the appointment of special prosecutor Andrewa Reeb is flagrantly “unconstitutional” due to her election to the New Mexico state legislature as a member of the Republican Party.

Baldwin is known as a vocal critic of the Republican Party and its de facto leader Donald Trump, and the motion to dismiss the special prosecutor says her party “clout” could impact the defence.

“Her potential influence on her colleagues in the Legislature could thwart any efforts to legislatively foreclose a prosecution that has been widely criticised as unjust and unprecedented,” the motion argues, according to Law & Crime.

“Even if she recuses from votes on her own compensation, her clout with her colleagues on other matters could (wittingly or not) encourage them to maintain funding for her position.

Mike Hutchins with his son and Halyna Hutchins.

Were the arrangement here approved by the courts, future District Attorneys could seek to curry favour with legislators who control their budgets by appointing them to high-profile cases — distorting the legislative process.”

Meanwhile court documents showed Baldwin faces hearing evidence from up to 44 people at the beginning of his case, including “Rust” director Joel Souza, prop worker Seth Kenny, camera assistant Lane Luper, line producer Gabrielle Pickle, and script supervisor Maime Mitchel.

They were set to testify at a preliminary hearing on February 24, according to documents obtained by The Daily Mail.

It’s unclear whether the scheduled start of the pre-trial hearing will be delayed by the motion, which says the New Mexico Constitution prohibits a sitting member of the Legislature from exercising “any powers properly belonging’ to either the executive or judicial branch”.

“As a special prosecutor, Representative Reeb is vested by statute with ‘all the powers and duties’ of a District Attorney, who is considered to be a member of either the judicial or executive branch of the New Mexico government,” the motion says.

Reeb last month charged Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with involuntary manslaughter, while assistant director David Halls pleaded down to negligent use of a deadly weapon.

The defence team said even if Reeb does not allow her “legislative interests” influence her prosecutorial choices she must still be disqualified to ensure a fair trial.

“The perception of bias could diminish public confidence in the fairness of the criminal process.”

Santa Fe’s district attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, a Democratc, said in an interview with CNN that the production, of which Baldwin is a producer, had a “fast and loose” attitude to safety which led to the life rounds being mixed in with dummy rounds.

“And then they somehow got loaded into a gun handed off to Alec Baldwin. He didn’t check it. He didn’t do any of the things that he was supposed to do to make sure that he was safe or that anyone around him was safe,” she said.

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Originally published as Halyna Hutchins’ family files new lawsuit against Alec Baldwin over fatal Rust shooting