Lawyers for Alec Baldwin declared him a “scapegoat” in a new lawsuit filed against prosecutors and law enforcement officials in New Mexico Thursday.
In the massive document, Baldwin alleges malicious prosecution, suppression of evidence, and defamation almost six months after his criminal charges for accidentally shooting and killing a cinematographer on a film set in 2021 were dismissed.
The filing, first lodged in New Mexico’s First Judicial District on Thursday, accuses the prosecutors of being “blinded by their desire to convict Alec Baldwin for all the wrong reasons, and at any cost.”
Baldwin was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 incident on the set of the western film Rust, when a gun he believed contained dummy rounds fired, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the set of Rust who loaded the revolver, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison last April.
Baldwin consistently denied any wrongdoing in the shooting, and a New Mexico judge dismissed the charges against him in July 2024. She found prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense.
The suit alleges wrongdoing by a number of plaintiffs, including special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altweis, and the first appointed special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, who was elected to the New Mexico state house in 2022.
The 73-page suit rehashes details from the 2021 shooting, the criminal investigation following Hutchins’ death, and the two attempts to prosecute Baldwin. Much of the filing focuses on the issue of evidence accusing the prosecutors of “intentional concealment of exculpatory evidence and then lying from the witness stand during trial about their coverup.”
“Although no verdict in this civil case can undo the trauma the state’s threat of conviction and incarceration has inflicted, Alec Baldwin has filed this action to hold defendants responsible for their appalling violations of the laws that governed their work,” Baldwin’s attorneys wrote in the suit.
It also accuses Carmack-Altweis and Reeb of pursuing the case over a political agenda. Reeb was running for her seat in the New Mexico legislature at the time, and the suit alleges she used the trial to “advance” her political career.
“I’d at least like to get out there that I am assisting you … as it might help in my campaign lol,” Reeb said in an email to the district attorney, The New York Times reported in 2023. She later clarified to the paper that she was joking in the message.
The suit also alleges defamation from Carmack-Altweis and Reeb, pointing to statements they made on cable news during the prosecution.
Baldwin’s lawyers also argue that the prosecutors should not be granted immunity from liability for their actions taken as government officials. A New Mexico law typically grants public employees legal leeway for “acting within the scope of duty.”
Carmack-Altweis and Reeb did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Beast.
Morrissey could not be immediately reached for comment. She told the Associated Press that she had been aware Baldwin intended to file a retaliatory lawsuit in October 2023. “We look forward to our day in court,” she added.
