The judge in Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial has blasted prosecutors’ “egregious” misconduct, which last month led to the case being dismissed — and the judge saying it cannot be filed again.
In a 21-page ruling this week, District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer took the prosecution to task for “intentionally and deliberately” withholding evidence from Baldwin’s legal team, according to new documents obtained by TMZ.
It was that “willful and deliberate misconduct,” Sommer wrote in the ruling, that ultimately left her with no choice but to dismiss the case on July 12, just three days after trial began.
Any other option “would not cure the fundamental unfairness that the State’s misconduct, and its reverberations in trial, had infused into the proceeding,” she said.
Among the “egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct and false testimony elicited during trial” were the orders allegedly given to Marissa Poppell. The crime scene technician testified she’d been told to file ammunition from the “Rust” investigation under another case number so that Baldwin’s team wouldn’t see it.
Baldwin, who starred in and produced the film, was charged with involuntary manslaughter after his prop gun discharged a live round, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza, on the New Mexico set of “Rust” in October 2021.
“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was also charged with involuntary manslaughter, was found guilty in March and received the maximum 18-month prison sentence.
Given the dismissal of Baldwin’s trial, lawyers for Gutierrez-Reed have requested her conviction be overturned, claiming she was subject to the same sort of prosecutorial misconduct.
Less than a week after the dismissal of his case, Baldwin’s legal team signaled their plans to sue Santa Fe prosecutor Kari Morrisey and Sheriff Adan Mendoza for withholding evidence.
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