Alec Baldwin nets another legal win as special prosecutor in Rust shooting steps down
Baldwin, along with Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is facing a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the October 2021 shooting death of Halyna Hutchins
Aux News Alec Baldwin
The latest update in Alec Baldwin’s post-Rust shooting legal saga appears to be a favorable one for the actor accused of involuntary manslaughter: the special prosecutor on the case, Rep. Andrea Reeb, is stepping away from the trial.
Back in February, Baldwin’s legal team sought to disqualify Reeb, arguing she needed to be excused from the case based on precautionary constitutional provisions aimed at maintaining separation between government branches. Reeb also serves as a Republican state representative in New Mexico.
After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to step down as special prosecutor in the Rust case.“ Reeb says in a statement shared on Tuesday evening by First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies’ office (which offered no further comment at the time.) “My priority in this case—and in every case I’ve prosecuted in my 25-year career—has been justice for the victim.”
Reeb emphasized that she “will not allow questions about my serving as a legislator and prosecutor to cloud the real issue at hand.”
“It has become clear that the best way I can ensure justice is served in this case is to step down so that the prosecution can focus on the evidence and the facts,” she said. The A.V. Club has reached out to Rep. Reeb for comment.
As it stands, Baldwin and Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed are each facing charges of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Both charges carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 18 months, along with fines; both defendants have pleaded not guilty.
A preliminary hearing meant to determine whether the evidence in the case is sufficient to move forward to trial is scheduled for May. Per NPR, prosecutors have also stated that Rust assistant director David Halls has agreed to plead guilty to charges of the negligent use of a deadly weapon.
In November 2021, Baldwin shot Hutchins fatally after he was handed a prop gun that went off during filming. Director Joel Souza was also injured in the incident.
17 Comments
“Reeb also serves as a Republican state representative in New Mexico.”
ohhhhhhhhhhhhh and suddenly the silly criminal charge makes much more sense. I have no further questions about why something so unsustainable was brought.
But republicans love guns!
I’m not sure how they feel about the popular KISS song “Love Gun”.
“arguing she needed to be excused from the case based on precautionary
constitutional provisions aimed at maintaining separation between
government branches.”Which is entirely fair, imho.
Sounds a little like she needs her ass patted for doing exactly what the law says she should.
And since she’s GOP she can’t call it sexual harassment when someone does pat dat ass.
Or she could pull a Marjorie Taylor Greene and claim her ass was patted by an ‘insane’ person in a restaurant, with absolutely no witnesses or anything to back it up.
An ‘insane’ person gave me a tug job in the bathroom of a Donut Queen once and you don’t hear me complaining.
In my experience, those are some of the best ones! (The ‘insane’ I mean)
Good a place as any to mention that the pop-up ads at top, the pop-up ads 60 seconds into reading any Kinja article, and that new janky video player in the lower right corner are killing this site faster than the bad writing and reliance on slideshows.
Ublock ftw, doesn’t block everything but it blocks the most annoying stuff.Now if there was only something that could be done about the writing….
Uwrite?
Shitblock? nah, that sounds like something else entirely.
Thanks for the tip…I try not to worry about it too much, because then I have to make sure I have whatever adblock app on multiple devices and it’s all for this one set of websites…nothing else I visit with regularity behaves the way Kinja sites do. #ohwell
Oh it helps on a lot more websites than just this one. Then again I’ve been ad blocking in one way or another for, what like 15 years now? So any time I see the regular internet it looks like a horrifying shit show of overlapping ads to my eyes. I only web surf on a couple PCs though, never any other devices, so it’s not a huge deal to put ublock on 2 copies of Firefox.
Local here. Here’s a practical translation of Reeb’s statement: “I thought that this would raise public awareness of me and increase my name recognition so that I could eventually run for a statewide public office or maybe a US Rep gig, but I have realized that no one in the state of New Mexico really gives a shit about this Alec Baldwin business so it won’t benefit me at all.”
The A.V. Club has reached out to Rep. Reeb for comment.“Who?” – Rep. Reeb
If she’s the one who tried to charge him with a gun law that went into effect AFTER the shooting, she has no business prosecuting anybody.She’s just wasting people’s money.