Alec Baldwin in Santa Fe County District Court in New Mexico on July 12, 2024. Ramsay de Give / POOL / AFP) In a significant legal setback for Alec Baldwin, a Los Angeles judge ruled Friday that the actor must proceed toward a civil trial over claims he negligently discharged a gun on the New Mexico set of the Western movie Rust.
Baldwin had asked the court to fully dismiss the lawsuit filed by Rust gaffer Serge Svetnoy. He argued that the crew member — who was standing a few feet away when Baldwin discharged a replica revolver on Oct. 21, 2021, fatally shooting the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins — had presented “no evidence” that Baldwin was responsible for safety on the production or played any role in obtaining props or making hiring decisions. As an actor, Baldwin contended, he had no duty to check whether the gun was loaded or to handle it as if it were.
But the judge wasn’t buying it. In his ruling, Judge Maurice Leiter said Svetnoy put forward adequate evidence that Baldwin had some level of control over the film’s budget, cast, crew, and day-to-day operations. “This is sufficient to create a triable issue of fact as to defendant’s safety duties,” Judge Leiter wrote in his ruling obtained by Rolling Stone.
The judge also allowed Svetnoy’s claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress to proceed. “A reasonable jury could find that Mr. Baldwin recklessly disregarded the probability that pointing a gun in the direction of someone, with the finger on the trigger, would cause emotional distress,” the judge wrote in his decision.
Baldwin, 68, did prevail on one cause of action when the court dismissed the gaffer’s claim of assault. The court ruled there was no evidence that “Baldwin intended to cause harm to plaintiff or anyone else.”
The judge then agreed to scrap an upcoming May 26 jury trial date and push the trial out more than four months. Baldwin’s lawyers did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
“We are pleased with the court’s decision to deny the motions for summary judgment brought by Rust Movie Productions and Alex Baldwin. These rulings enable our client to present his case at a jury trial, now scheduled for October of this year. He looks forward to finally having his day in court on this long-pending matter,” Svetnoy’s lawyers Gary Dordick and John Upton said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
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In the aftermath of the fatal shooting on the film’s Santa Fe set, Baldwin faced a felony involuntary manslaughter count that was dramatically dismissed at trial. He also faced civil lawsuits from multiple crew members and members of Hutchins’ family.
