Attorney faults AG for halting Alec Baldwin appeal

An attorney representing the family of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins criticized New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Tuesday — calling him “the Grinch” — for blocking an appeal of a judge’s decision to toss a criminal case against actor Alec Baldwin.

The effort to prosecute Baldwin in Hutchins’ fatal shooting on the movie set ended this week when the special prosecutor withdrew her appeal of state District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer’s decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter against the actor at his trial.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey said Monday that she was halting the appeal because the New Mexico attorney general’s office did not intend to “exhaustively pursue the appeal.”

The attorney general’s office has sole authority to appeal criminal cases, she said.

Gloria Allred, a Los Angeles attorney representing Hutchins’ parents in a civil lawsuit against Baldwin, held a news conference Tuesday expressing disappointment with the decision to end the appeal.

Allred also took aim at both the judge and the attorney general for the failed effort to prosecute Baldwin.

“First, Judge Marlowe Sommer took the criminal case away from the jury, depriving them of the ability to decide the criminal case against Alec Baldwin,” Allred said Tuesday in a news conference streamed online. “Then, the New Mexico Attorney General, Raúl Torres, decided that he would not allow the justices of the New Mexico appellate court to decide if the trial judge’s decision was correct.”

Baldwin was holding a pistol when it discharged on the set of the Western movie “Rust” outside Santa Fe, killing Hutchins in October 2021.

The involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin imploded during his trial in July when it was revealed that ammunition was brought to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office by a man who said the rounds could be related to Hutchins’ killing.

Prosecutors said they considered the rounds unrelated to the criminal case. Baldwin’s attorneys argued that prosecutors “buried” evidence that could have exonerated the actor.

Marlowe Sommer tossed the case halfway through trial, finding that investigators and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense.

Allred said that the conclusion of the criminal case allows a civil lawsuit filed by Hutchins’ parents and sister against Baldwin to proceed in New Mexico civil court. The suit was on hold pending the outcome of the criminal charges against Baldwin.

“Although the Attorney General of New Mexico, Raúl Torres, is the Grinch who stole this Christmas, we will work to ensure that a future Christmas will be without this Grinch,” Allred said.

Torrez’s spokeswoman, Lauren Rodriguez, said the attorney general’s office declined to appeal the dismissal “in light of the significant procedural irregularities identified by” the judge.

“An appeal in this matter would have been untenable in light of Judge Marlowe Sommer’s detailed finding that critical evidence had been withheld from Mr. Baldwin’s defense team and her blistering assessment of the special prosecutor’s gross mishandling of the case at trial,” Rodriguez said.

Torrez also wanted to avoid adding to the $750,000 cost of Baldwin’s criminal prosecution, she said in a written statement.

“We believe it is in the best interests of justice for the criminal matter against Mr. Baldwin to remain closed and hope that Ms. Hutchins’ family can obtain important answers and a sense of closure through their still pending civil action,” Rodriguez said.

Allred represents Hutchins’ parents, Olga Solovey and Anatolli Androsovych, and her sister, Svetlana Zenko, in a civil lawsuit pending in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe.

Now that Baldwin is free of criminal liability, he no longer has constitutional protections from self-incrimination, allowing Allred to depose the actor and pursue the civil action, she said.

“We have confidence that a New Mexico jury, if allowed to decide our civil case, would do the right thing,” Allred said. “We as their lawyers will do anything and everything that is legally possible and appropriate to win justice for Helena and her family.”