Alec Baldwin was offered a deal last October to plead to a misdemeanor — and apparently served no prison time — in the accidental shooting on the set of the movie “Rust,” according to a filing released Friday.
But before he could decide whether to accept the terms, prosecutors withdrew the offer and told his attorneys they would seek to indict him, the filing says.
Baldwin was charged last January with manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halina Hutchins, and now faces up to 18 months in prison if convicted at trial in July.
The latest revelation about the withdrawn plea offer is included among hundreds of pages of material released Friday as part of Baldwin’s efforts to have the case thrown out.
According to the documents, special prosecutor Carrie Morrissey offered “a plea deal similar to the simple misdemeanor deal accepted by Dave Holz.”
Holz, the first assistant director on “Rust,” did not serve prison time after pleading last year to a charge of negligent handling of a deadly weapon. Instead, he was given six months of unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service, and ordered to take firearms safety classes.
The filing states that the offer was made on October 5, and Baldwin was given until October 27 to decide whether or not to accept it. However, on Oct. 17, prosecutors informed Baldwin’s attorneys that the deal was canceled and were moving forward to the grand jury, according to the filing.
Baldwin’s lawyers have accused New Mexico prosecutors of a series of violations and are asking for the case to be dismissed.
Among the allegations is an allegation that Morrissey, the lead prosecutor in the case, repeatedly leaked classified information about grand jury proceedings to an NBC News reporter.
In November, Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nicas, filed a motion for sanctions in the case, seeking to remove Morrissey and her co-counsel Jason Lewis from the case, and asking the court to impose financial sanctions on Morrissey.
In the motion, which was made public on Friday, Nickas alleged that Morrissey compromised the grand jury process by telling The New York Times in October that she would take Baldwin’s case to the grand jury on November 16. That led to at least one juror deciding to ask if he could participate in Baldwin’s case, according to the filing.
At a secret hearing on November 15, the judge overseeing the case warned the parties not to reveal anything about the grand jury proceedings to the media, citing the risk that doing so would distort the case, according to the filing.
The judge also postponed grand jury proceedings from November to January 18, to give more time to review material the defense wants to present to the grand jury.
Nicas claims that within an hour of the hearing, Morrissey called an NBC News reporter to relay a scheduling update. On the same day, NBC News reported that grand jury proceedings had been postponed. The newspaper also quoted an “unnamed source” as saying that prosecutors hope the trial will “humble” Baldwin and serve as a “teachable moment.”
In response, Nikas filed a secret motion for sanctions on November 20, alleging that Morrissey clearly violated the judge’s confidentiality order. Hours after his submission, he received a call from an NBC correspondent asking for comment.
According to Nickas, the reporter stated that Morrissey called her, read large portions of the lawsuit, “screamed at her for publishing Morrissey’s statements revealing grand jury information and motives for prosecuting this case, and threatened to hand her subpoenas.” “
Nikas thanked the reporter for the information and declined to comment, according to his affidavit.
Morrissey filed an objection to Baldwin’s motion for sanctions, which was not announced as part of the motion to dismiss. Baldwin’s filing also does not reveal the outcome of the motion, although Morrissey and Lewis remain in the case.
The file includes Baldwin’s response to Morrissey’s dissent, which quotes Morrissey as accusing Baldwin of having an “impressive level of arrogance.” According to the filing, Morrissey also referred to an infamous voicemail from 2007 in which Baldwin called his daughter a “rude, thoughtless little pig.”
Those statements confirm “the illicit motives behind this trial,” Nikas wrote.
The response also notes that Morrissey confirmed that she told the grand jury witnesses about the outcome of the Nov. 15 hearing, but not the media.
Morrissey declined to comment on the motion to dismiss the case in an email Thursday evening.
“We will only respond in court pleadings and have 14 days starting tomorrow to file our response,” she wrote.