PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 23: Alec Baldwin attends Sundance Institute’s ‘An Artist at the Table Presented by IMDbPro’ at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2020 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)
OAN’s Abril Elfi
12:42 PM – Sunday, May 26, 2024
The judge in Alec Baldwin’s Rust case denied the motion to dismiss the indictment on Friday.
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According to court records obtained by Fox News Digital, the judge dismissed Baldwin’s two arguments for grand jury proceedings, ruling they were not biased against him.
The defense claimed that the prosecutors had broken the grand jury’s rules in order to draw attention away from witnesses and exculpatory evidence.
The prosecution has refuted this claim, branding the defense attorney “shameless” and highlighting inconsistencies in his statements.
“We look forward to our day in court,” Baldwin’s lawyers, Alex Spiro and Luke Nikas, said in a statement.
On January 19th, Baldwin was charged with two felonies: involuntary manslaughter and negligent use of a firearm, or, alternatively, involuntary manslaughter without exercising reasonable caution or circumspection.
On October 21st, 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died on the Western film set following the discharge of a gun that Baldwin was holding.
The actor waived all of his pre-trial appearances and did not show up for the hearing on May 17th.
His legal team made a virtual appearance, arguing that the prosecution had broken the law when the grand jury was being considered. Baldwin’s lead attorney, Alex Spiro, concentrated on claims that the prosecution had not informed the witnesses prior to the grand jury.
“The way this is supposed to work is that the grand jury’s in a week, there’s all these witnesses that could come, you hit them with a subpoena, they come to the grand jury, or you have them on standby, and you talk to them,” Spiro said during the May 17th hearing. “This isn’t how you’re supposed to do it, period.”
He continued, stating that the witnesses had “never [seen] an alert letter.”
However, Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued that Spiro’s argument is a “complete misrepresentation” of what actually happened.
“Mr. Spiro wants to say to this court this morning that I’m just kind of making this up as I go along,” Morrissey said, referring to the state’s witnesses. “I had no intention of ever presenting anyone over video.”
“I’m not going to sit here and be called a liar,” she added.
Baldwin’s team refuted that the prosecution acted unethically and failed to present crucial evidence to a grand jury in their original motion to dismiss the indictment.
“Enough is enough,” the court documents stated. “This is an abuse of the system and an abuse of an innocent person whose rights have been trampled to the extreme.”
Baldwin has since submitted two more moves to dismiss: one for failing to allege a criminal act and one for destruction of evidence (referring to the firearm).
A court hearing has not yet been set, but the state responded to both motions on May 21st.
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