He’ll do anything!
Emmy winning television star and former blockbuster darling Alec Baldwin filed a motion on Monday, June 24 to dismiss the charge of involuntary manslaughter of which he currently stands accused. This is the screen icon’s fifth attempt to get the charges against him dropped. The filing occurred even as his legal team conducted arguments at a virtual hearing, where one of two requests to bring an end to the case were denied.
Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter case stems from the fatal shooting of a crew member on the set of the western “Rust” in 2021.
The current motion relies on an allegation by Baldwin that the prosecution and law enforcement improperly destroyed evidence with a bearing on the case. Presiding Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer has refused to issue a ruling on that question until at least Friday the 28th of June.
Baldwin did not make an appearance at the virtual hearings—he left that to his legal team—but he did turn up in the Hamptons over the weekend. He wasn’t out of line for doing so—he had previously filed paperwork with the court waving all pre-trial appearances.
At the hearings, Baldwin’s legal team petitioned the court with an expedited motion for relief to order the dismissal of the indictment with prejudice. It described the State’s strategy as “trial by ambush,” and alleged that it has created a grossly prejudicial environment that courts have long held as improper. The prosecution’s strategy has forced Baldwin to spend a great deal of time and money independently pursuing discovery, and in so doing he has turned up mountains of evidence that the prosecution seems to have attempted to bury. The State has further, they alleged, made a number of late disclosures after court-imposed dispositive and witness deadlines.
Baldwin’s celebrity status, the defense team argued, should no more entitle him to special scrutiny than it does to special deference. He should be treated like any other defendant.
