I want to you know what you think... Does all the evidence from the Santa Fe Sherriff gave to the media make it more or less likely that Alec Baldwin will be criminally charged? Do you think it taints a possible jury to release all these bloody photos and videos?
I think he won’t be charged with anything. The reason I say that is the DA went to such extreme measures to “prove” it is possible to fire the gun without pulling the trigger. The trigger issues has been Baldwin’s defense for why he wasn’t negligent. I think they will charge the person (people) who loaded the live round with something.
I believe that he will be charged with something similar to negligent homicide. He violated every rule of handling a firearm when he did not check it when he received it from his staff, his protestations of not being responsible were self serving and transparent. His statement that he did not have his finger on the trigger were false. His PR campaign was and is a disgrace.
He should be charged with negligent homicide. Whether he’s convicted and actually sentenced will depend on his PR and legal teams. That tweet where he made light of a similar situation (“So, must it feel to wrongfully kill someone?”) that circulated in the aftermath should be used as evidence of his culpability. If he knew it was wrong then, why not now?
After watching Hillary not be charged in spite of all the evidence against her, I've decided Lady Justice's blindfold is see-through. My guess is that, if he's found guilty of anything, it will be something minor such as "negligent discharge of a firearm". I'm sure his lawyers will make the case that the jury has been tainted.
I think he should be charged although with what exactly, I don't know. Not familiar with the local laws. I'd love to know how live ammunition got into that handgun and who was responsible for THAT. And why was there live ammunition on the set at all?
I don't know how many people are following this closely but my feeling is that it may not be too difficult to find a jury that isn't "tainted".
My real question is why are real firearms used on movie sets? When I went through active shooter training for work (and I even did a class at the Sig Sauer Academy on my own time and dime) we used Simunition for the "live" fire training. Many pistols are supported by Simunition and are modified using a conversion kit. Once modified, they are incapable of chambering live ammunition, only the Simunition marking cartridges.
So they look real (because they ARE real pistols) and fire just like the real, unmodified pistol, but cannot use live ammunition. So why are movie makers using real handguns?
I believe he is guilty of negligence and the SFCS is pissed at him for deflecting blame and exonerating himself via the OSHB report, which is why they released everything they did. It worries me that Suffolk County still hasn’t turned over his phone. Not sure what to think about tainting a possible jury - either criminal or civil.
I'm in the column expecting whatever NM's version of "criminally negligent homicide" against Baldwin. The evidence made public so far seems to support it - and I'm a believer in the theory that the Sheriff in this case has not released the really damning stuff yet. Any other people in the mix, I'm starting to doubt will be charged, although they'll still get caught in the civil liability net.
All that's a big change from my original position, but the revelations of massive irregularities in on-set procedures that are designed to prevent tragedies like this eliminates any "protection" that may have been claimable if they all followed the rules.
Do I think he will be charged? No, I think they would’ve charged him already, it was very evident it was at the least a negligent manslaughter case, I do think releasing all the evidence absolutely taints a possible jury, I think he should’ve been charged but the punishment I’d leave to a jury
His lying on Tv in interviews I think he should be held responsible for and I think he should be punished criminally for the negligent manslaughter but I don’t have all the facts and evidence
I believe he should be charged but most likely will not be charged.
There is a lot of buck passing over this shooting but when all is said and done, Baldwin is solely responsible. He was handed a weapon that he intended to aim and pull the trigger. He was responsible to confirm the status of the weapon and ammo as soon as he took possession.
I'm almost 70 and been shooting since I was a kid. I've never been handed a weapon where I took the word on it's status from the person handing it to me.
Unless they can prove Alec put the live bullet in the revolver I doubt he will be charged especially if he did what he was directed to do. Just like Michael Massee was never charged with the shooting of Brandon Lee.
He clearly violated BASIC rules of firearms safety. Were it an "average Joe," I suspect there'd have already been an arrest. Were it a famous but right wing actor, I suspect the Democrat media would have paid a lot more attention with nothing but calls for harsh civil and criminal punishment.
At minimum, Alec Baldwin showed negligence in his actions. I would believe it to be reckless as well. Two culpable mental states for a criminal action in most states.
While I haven’t read much detail on this, I am hard pressed to think that Baldwin is criminally liable for this incident. I would think that others have responsibility for ensuring firearm safety on a movie set even factoring in Baldwin’s producer role.
A loaded revolver with a cocked hammer is an accident waiting to happen. The video concludes that his trigger finger was on the trigger. Of the two scenes posted on line the first one does not show any movement of his hand after he drew the weapon and pointed it towards the camera. but in the second scene it shows that he was not in control of the weapon because he pointed the weapon in the wrong direction and corrected the draw by moving the pointed weapon towards the right and grabbed the weapon as though he was loosing his grip on it. If he had done this in the original shooting a slight amount of pressure on the trigger would be enough to set off the weapon. In other words, he was having control with his grip of the weapon and automatically squeezed the handle and trigger of the weapon without ever having to think about pulling the trigger. The biggest surprise was when the weapon fired. Believe me that there is no safe ammunition. Blanks do not have a projectile in them, but they have a firing pin that explodes and ignites the black powder in the shell covered by a wax seal that explodes causing a flame to travel down the barrel causing injury to anything in front. It is not too difficult to look at the weapon and see that the cylinder is loaded with ammo.
It doesn’t matter if he didn’t follow “accepted gun rules.” The legalities alone will determine this. There are arcane applications of “accident” law that vary from state to state. Based on my understanding of New Mexico, he will not be charged with anything life-changing.
There is a lot of blame to go round in this case (Speaking as someone who has worked as a theatrical armour on movies and stage productions), normally I would lay the majority of the blame solely at the feet of the armour, however although I still do place a lot of the blame with the armour, unlike the productions I worked on there was a very unusual set of procedures in place on the Rust set (due to Covid restrictions), this meant that the armour wasn't able to directly place the gun in the actors hand just prior to the seen, and the armour was actually banned from the set (something I would never have agreed to myself), although this situation doesn't absolve the armour from liability, it does spread the blame/liability to include others (including those who came up with and implemented the ridiculous Covid rules/procedures for the armour to have to follow), so from the armour and everyone who touched/handled the gun up to and including Baldwin, had a legal/moral responsibility to check on the gun's condition (ie loaded or unloaded), if just one of the people who's responsibility it was to check the guns condition had actually done so, then we wouldn't be having this conversation, and Rust would just be another straight to DVD/stream title. Personally I would like to see everyone of those people (the person who came up with the dangerously flawed procedures, the armour, everyone in-between who handled the gun and Baldwin) charged with involuntary manslaughter, there are so many ways this tragically negligent death could have so easily been avoided.
Apr 27, 2022·edited Apr 27, 2022Liked by Emily Miller
No, the sheriff releasing all current information and documents guarantee’s that Baldwin won’t be charged with any type of felony, possibly a misdemeanor just to show he didn’t get off free. Going to be just like Hillary’s e-mail ………scot free 🤷♂️
I think he spends whatever he needs to in order to skate on this. It's going to be the OJ thing where he doesn't get jail time on a criminal charge but is found liable in a civil case.
I think it should be more likely be charged, one important thing is it proved he lied about pulling the trigger, what else did he lie about to try and cover up his responsibility for her death.
I do not believe the evidence release will affect whether or not he is charged, nor should it; the charging decision should be made by those who already had it anyway. From public relations, showing the video with his finger on the trigger (although not of the actual incident) might indicate an intent to charge, or the sheriff prodding the DA to charge, I don't know. The problem is not showing Baldwin did something wrong - he did - it is finding a specific charge in the law that is appropriate and can be proven to a jury.
In my opinion the strength of a public call for justice is a double edged sword. Public pressure demands accountability from Alec Baldwin. But it also makes it easier for his legal team to claim an unbiased jury is impossible in Sante Fe.
But yes, he will be charged, criminally and I hope the families hold him accountable in a civil suit.
Somehow wealth, powerful friends, and influence tend to tip the scales of justice in the favor of these dark-triad types. Liberty and justice for all isn’t always a thing we do here in the USA.
I strongly suspect that the "investigation" is taking so long because Sheriff Mendoza is endeavoring in fact to not recommend charges against Baldwin. This goes back to Sheriff's statement that he had given special "considerations" to Alec, such as allowing him to travel outside the country and who knows what else. The woke focus is on the gun itself -- who loaded live ammo -- and most likely Halls takes the fall. Crew and ammo supplier are fighting amongst themselves. This conveniently overlooks AB's reckless behavior for which, in any law-abiding county, he would be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Even for that, New Mexico's sentencing is light. His responsibility as producer can be addressed in civil court. Two of the other producers have requested to be removed from the Mamie Mitchell lawsuit but Baldwin remains as a defendant.
Do you think Alec Baldwin ever regrets being in one of the great conservative movies of all time - The Hunt for Red October - with a host of other conservatives...? It literally is his last and only great role because he destroyed his career quite effectively after that... And now this...
The data dump does seem strange. I am not exactly sure how FOIA requests work. Do they have to argue in court what is released and what isn't in an ongoing investigation? Did Judge order full data dump? Partial?
It does help put more pieces of the puzzle together for the public. But somethings that should have been redacted or held back were released, like private info of uncharged people and footage of Halyna was not blurred before release, etc. So I tend to think there may be other rational for so much detailed data.
It may be an indication that the DA behind the scenes expressed to the Sheriff an intent not to charge AB regardless of what Fed analysis shows and Sheriff said fine we will put all cards on the table regardless of tainting a jury that he assumed AB will never see. Even though the DA did state publicly that charges are still on the table, just waiting on Fed's forensics.
I think he won’t be charged with anything. The reason I say that is the DA went to such extreme measures to “prove” it is possible to fire the gun without pulling the trigger. The trigger issues has been Baldwin’s defense for why he wasn’t negligent. I think they will charge the person (people) who loaded the live round with something.
I believe that he will be charged with something similar to negligent homicide. He violated every rule of handling a firearm when he did not check it when he received it from his staff, his protestations of not being responsible were self serving and transparent. His statement that he did not have his finger on the trigger were false. His PR campaign was and is a disgrace.
He should be charged with negligent homicide. Whether he’s convicted and actually sentenced will depend on his PR and legal teams. That tweet where he made light of a similar situation (“So, must it feel to wrongfully kill someone?”) that circulated in the aftermath should be used as evidence of his culpability. If he knew it was wrong then, why not now?
After watching Hillary not be charged in spite of all the evidence against her, I've decided Lady Justice's blindfold is see-through. My guess is that, if he's found guilty of anything, it will be something minor such as "negligent discharge of a firearm". I'm sure his lawyers will make the case that the jury has been tainted.
I think he should be charged although with what exactly, I don't know. Not familiar with the local laws. I'd love to know how live ammunition got into that handgun and who was responsible for THAT. And why was there live ammunition on the set at all?
I don't know how many people are following this closely but my feeling is that it may not be too difficult to find a jury that isn't "tainted".
My real question is why are real firearms used on movie sets? When I went through active shooter training for work (and I even did a class at the Sig Sauer Academy on my own time and dime) we used Simunition for the "live" fire training. Many pistols are supported by Simunition and are modified using a conversion kit. Once modified, they are incapable of chambering live ammunition, only the Simunition marking cartridges.
So they look real (because they ARE real pistols) and fire just like the real, unmodified pistol, but cannot use live ammunition. So why are movie makers using real handguns?
It is a case of negligent homicide.
He certainly should be charged.
I believe he is guilty of negligence and the SFCS is pissed at him for deflecting blame and exonerating himself via the OSHB report, which is why they released everything they did. It worries me that Suffolk County still hasn’t turned over his phone. Not sure what to think about tainting a possible jury - either criminal or civil.
I'm in the column expecting whatever NM's version of "criminally negligent homicide" against Baldwin. The evidence made public so far seems to support it - and I'm a believer in the theory that the Sheriff in this case has not released the really damning stuff yet. Any other people in the mix, I'm starting to doubt will be charged, although they'll still get caught in the civil liability net.
All that's a big change from my original position, but the revelations of massive irregularities in on-set procedures that are designed to prevent tragedies like this eliminates any "protection" that may have been claimable if they all followed the rules.
Do I think he will be charged? No, I think they would’ve charged him already, it was very evident it was at the least a negligent manslaughter case, I do think releasing all the evidence absolutely taints a possible jury, I think he should’ve been charged but the punishment I’d leave to a jury
His lying on Tv in interviews I think he should be held responsible for and I think he should be punished criminally for the negligent manslaughter but I don’t have all the facts and evidence
I believe he should be charged but most likely will not be charged.
There is a lot of buck passing over this shooting but when all is said and done, Baldwin is solely responsible. He was handed a weapon that he intended to aim and pull the trigger. He was responsible to confirm the status of the weapon and ammo as soon as he took possession.
I'm almost 70 and been shooting since I was a kid. I've never been handed a weapon where I took the word on it's status from the person handing it to me.
Unless they can prove Alec put the live bullet in the revolver I doubt he will be charged especially if he did what he was directed to do. Just like Michael Massee was never charged with the shooting of Brandon Lee.
He clearly violated BASIC rules of firearms safety. Were it an "average Joe," I suspect there'd have already been an arrest. Were it a famous but right wing actor, I suspect the Democrat media would have paid a lot more attention with nothing but calls for harsh civil and criminal punishment.
At minimum, Alec Baldwin showed negligence in his actions. I would believe it to be reckless as well. Two culpable mental states for a criminal action in most states.
While I haven’t read much detail on this, I am hard pressed to think that Baldwin is criminally liable for this incident. I would think that others have responsibility for ensuring firearm safety on a movie set even factoring in Baldwin’s producer role.
A loaded revolver with a cocked hammer is an accident waiting to happen. The video concludes that his trigger finger was on the trigger. Of the two scenes posted on line the first one does not show any movement of his hand after he drew the weapon and pointed it towards the camera. but in the second scene it shows that he was not in control of the weapon because he pointed the weapon in the wrong direction and corrected the draw by moving the pointed weapon towards the right and grabbed the weapon as though he was loosing his grip on it. If he had done this in the original shooting a slight amount of pressure on the trigger would be enough to set off the weapon. In other words, he was having control with his grip of the weapon and automatically squeezed the handle and trigger of the weapon without ever having to think about pulling the trigger. The biggest surprise was when the weapon fired. Believe me that there is no safe ammunition. Blanks do not have a projectile in them, but they have a firing pin that explodes and ignites the black powder in the shell covered by a wax seal that explodes causing a flame to travel down the barrel causing injury to anything in front. It is not too difficult to look at the weapon and see that the cylinder is loaded with ammo.
It doesn’t matter if he didn’t follow “accepted gun rules.” The legalities alone will determine this. There are arcane applications of “accident” law that vary from state to state. Based on my understanding of New Mexico, he will not be charged with anything life-changing.
There is a lot of blame to go round in this case (Speaking as someone who has worked as a theatrical armour on movies and stage productions), normally I would lay the majority of the blame solely at the feet of the armour, however although I still do place a lot of the blame with the armour, unlike the productions I worked on there was a very unusual set of procedures in place on the Rust set (due to Covid restrictions), this meant that the armour wasn't able to directly place the gun in the actors hand just prior to the seen, and the armour was actually banned from the set (something I would never have agreed to myself), although this situation doesn't absolve the armour from liability, it does spread the blame/liability to include others (including those who came up with and implemented the ridiculous Covid rules/procedures for the armour to have to follow), so from the armour and everyone who touched/handled the gun up to and including Baldwin, had a legal/moral responsibility to check on the gun's condition (ie loaded or unloaded), if just one of the people who's responsibility it was to check the guns condition had actually done so, then we wouldn't be having this conversation, and Rust would just be another straight to DVD/stream title. Personally I would like to see everyone of those people (the person who came up with the dangerously flawed procedures, the armour, everyone in-between who handled the gun and Baldwin) charged with involuntary manslaughter, there are so many ways this tragically negligent death could have so easily been avoided.
No, the sheriff releasing all current information and documents guarantee’s that Baldwin won’t be charged with any type of felony, possibly a misdemeanor just to show he didn’t get off free. Going to be just like Hillary’s e-mail ………scot free 🤷♂️
I think he spends whatever he needs to in order to skate on this. It's going to be the OJ thing where he doesn't get jail time on a criminal charge but is found liable in a civil case.
I think it should be more likely be charged, one important thing is it proved he lied about pulling the trigger, what else did he lie about to try and cover up his responsibility for her death.
I do not believe the evidence release will affect whether or not he is charged, nor should it; the charging decision should be made by those who already had it anyway. From public relations, showing the video with his finger on the trigger (although not of the actual incident) might indicate an intent to charge, or the sheriff prodding the DA to charge, I don't know. The problem is not showing Baldwin did something wrong - he did - it is finding a specific charge in the law that is appropriate and can be proven to a jury.
In my opinion the strength of a public call for justice is a double edged sword. Public pressure demands accountability from Alec Baldwin. But it also makes it easier for his legal team to claim an unbiased jury is impossible in Sante Fe.
But yes, he will be charged, criminally and I hope the families hold him accountable in a civil suit.
His money will get him off unfortunately
He will be charged with criminally negligent homicide.
The NM involuntary manslaughter criminal statute reads
-Involuntary manslaughter consists of manslaughter committed
in the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to felony,
or
in the commission of a lawful act which might produce death
in an unlawful manner
>>>or without due caution and circumspection<<<
Did Alec violate this last 3 lines? Yes
Unfortunately, the movie industry regs for firearm use by actors
does permit this by saying actors cannot check the gun themselves
(but can order a recheck at any time)
This creates a culture of actors trusting others
to verify a firearm is safe for them to handle, use it however they please,
and a cultural belief of actors not being negligent
if they follow industry standards.
In affect - erasing an individual's liability only if they are an actor.
This industry standard must change.
Did Alec violate the letter of the law? Yes
Did Alec follow industry standards? Yes
Are industry standards incorrect and should be changed? Yes
Does state law trump industry regulations? Yes
Should the state have denied filming rights until it was changed? Maybe
Would the defense team have a credible defense and jury trial could go either way? Yes
A great prosecutor would get a conviction.
A normal one may or may not.
In my mind, the jury should have the final say in the incident
and DA should bring the trial regardless that they think they would lose.
Even if DA lost this case, it would force the industry to change protocols.
One redundant safety check by AD and actor's ability to request a 2nd
is not enough to prevent this type of incident from happening.
Potential other changes to regs?
-No human should be in line of fire ever
when an actor has a fully functional firearm
They can operate camera(s) 'remotely'.
-Ban all dummy round use. They can use CGI in editing.
-Actor, AD, Armorer, and person that requested rounds put the firearm
for the scene
must sign off that they watched the firearm being inspected
checking to see it is unloaded or watching it being loaded
with anything and what type of rounds put in
when a fully functioning firearm is used.
Other suggestions welcome
This all doesn't say that AD Halls and Armorer Reed have zero criminal and civil liability
If NM had a criminal reckless endangerment statute for adults
then they would have been charged already.
I am not sure if NM have criminal laws that would cover
Halls' and Reed's neglect of duties as it is.
But civilly they both have liability in Mrs. Hutchin's death and Souza's injuries.
This all is premised on a belief that Reed put the live round in accidentally.
IF Halls', Alec's, or random set employee's fingerprints, or DNA,
are found on the spent round casing
after FBI forensics
then this was a much bigger crime.
FIN
Somehow wealth, powerful friends, and influence tend to tip the scales of justice in the favor of these dark-triad types. Liberty and justice for all isn’t always a thing we do here in the USA.
It is noteworthy that the state OSHB fined the production the max amount.
I strongly suspect that the "investigation" is taking so long because Sheriff Mendoza is endeavoring in fact to not recommend charges against Baldwin. This goes back to Sheriff's statement that he had given special "considerations" to Alec, such as allowing him to travel outside the country and who knows what else. The woke focus is on the gun itself -- who loaded live ammo -- and most likely Halls takes the fall. Crew and ammo supplier are fighting amongst themselves. This conveniently overlooks AB's reckless behavior for which, in any law-abiding county, he would be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Even for that, New Mexico's sentencing is light. His responsibility as producer can be addressed in civil court. Two of the other producers have requested to be removed from the Mamie Mitchell lawsuit but Baldwin remains as a defendant.
Do you think Alec Baldwin ever regrets being in one of the great conservative movies of all time - The Hunt for Red October - with a host of other conservatives...? It literally is his last and only great role because he destroyed his career quite effectively after that... And now this...
Internet search turned up nothing. Perhaps you could provide a the URL for these "regulation"
The data dump does seem strange. I am not exactly sure how FOIA requests work. Do they have to argue in court what is released and what isn't in an ongoing investigation? Did Judge order full data dump? Partial?
It does help put more pieces of the puzzle together for the public. But somethings that should have been redacted or held back were released, like private info of uncharged people and footage of Halyna was not blurred before release, etc. So I tend to think there may be other rational for so much detailed data.
It may be an indication that the DA behind the scenes expressed to the Sheriff an intent not to charge AB regardless of what Fed analysis shows and Sheriff said fine we will put all cards on the table regardless of tainting a jury that he assumed AB will never see. Even though the DA did state publicly that charges are still on the table, just waiting on Fed's forensics.
It may be both.
I certainly hope that he is charged with something because all he will get is probation and a slap on the wrist. It’s disgraceful
Another person that influenced the events that day was
whoever decided dummy rounds were supposed to be used for rehearsal.
Hannah Reed would have left the revolver empty
unless someone ordered her to put in dummy rounds that morning.
Soooo who made the demand for dummy rounds?
Not that they are criminally culpable, but it is a piece of the pie.
Were they necessary for rehearsal or just for shooting the scene?
If Alec or Halls ordered them to be put in that morning
then it would be added evidence of their liability
in civil lawsuits and penalties, I think.
Reed put in 5 dummy rounds in that morning
The 6th would not go in for some reason.
She returned around lunch time and fixed the revolver
-Did someone order her to return at lunchtime to put in 6th round?
To fix the revolver
she would have completely unloaded the revolver
before working on it.
After fixing whatever was wrong with the revolver
then she reloaded the revolver
with all 6 rounds.
Did she put the revolver back together incorrectly disabling any safety features?
I dunno, but it is possible.
The live round was put into the revolver at this reloading.
Unless Halls or Alec swapped out a dummy round and put in a live round
while revolver was in their possession before the discharge.