A week after Alec Baldwin and his wife’s TLC reality show premiered, attorney Gloria Allred demanded the actor testify in a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the “Rust” shooting tragedy.
Allred represents the Ukrainian family of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died in October 2021 after being shot when Baldwin’s gun fired during a run-through of a scene on the western movie set. The family’s case is one of several civil lawsuits that stalled following the collapse of New Mexico’s criminal prosecution of Baldwin.
A New Mexico state judge dismissed all criminal charges against the 66-year-old actor in July amid allegations of withholding evidence by the special prosecutor and members of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department, which investigated the accidental shooting.
Baldwin then sued New Mexico officials, claiming malicious prosecution. The “30 Rock” and “The Hunt for Red October” star also participated in the filming of a reality TV show featuring his wife, Hilaria, and their seven young children.
Allred on Monday filed a notice of deposition in Santa Fe, demanding that Baldwin testify in New York on May 9.
The victims’ rights attorney expressed dismay that Baldwin was starring in the reality show before resolving outstanding litigation surrounding the death of the 42-year-old cinematographer, who was survived by a husband and son in the U.S. and family members in her native Ukraine.
The TLC series, which lists the Baldwins as producers, gives viewers a glimpse into the chaotic and high-end lives of the famous couple, their children and numerous pets.
The premiere episode, which debuted Feb. 23, depicts Baldwin sobbing over Hutchins’ death. In the episode, he acknowledged suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following the shooting.
“Life will forever be different. Halyna lost her life in the most unthinkable tragedy, a son lost his mom,” Hilaria Baldwin said in the show. “We are going to feel and carry this pain forever. This will be a part of our family story.”
Alec and Hilaria Baldwin with their children.
(TLC)
The show’s depiction of the Baldwins’ grief rankled Allred, who accused the show of glossing over the suffering of others — namely Hutchins’ parents, Olga Solovey and Anatolii Androsovych, and her sister, Svetlana Zemko.
“Is this just a shameless attempt to portray him as the real victim in this case?” Allred asked in a statement. “It is long overdue for Alec Baldwin to admit and face the real-life consequences that he caused Halyna’s parents and sister.”
Baldwin’s attorneys were not immediately available to comment Tuesday.
The star has long denied that he was at fault in the shooting, which also injured the film’s director Joel Souza. Baldwin had been handed the loaded weapon that afternoon by an assistant director and told that the gun was “cold,” meaning it contained no live ammunition.
During the Santa Fe trial, the actor’s lawyers had sought to shift focus away from whether Baldwin pulled his gun’s trigger in the accidental shooting and onto another key question: Where did the lethal bullet come from?
The state’s case unraveled when Baldwin’s attorneys accused the special prosecutor and sheriff’s deputies of misconduct. They pointed to bullets that a potential witness had turned over to sheriff’s investigators a year prior — but not made available to Baldwin’s team.
New Mexico 1st Judicial District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the single felony charge against Baldwin.
Before her death, Halyna Hutchins wanted to move her family to the U.S. from their war-torn country.
“Rust” premiered last year at a Polish film festival, but a U.S. distributor has not signed on to release it.
The film’s weapons expert, Hannah Gutierrez, has served nearly a year of her sentence for involuntary manslaughter. Gutierrez was found guilty by a Santa Fe jury last March and sentenced to 18 months in a women’s prison.