Alec Baldwin Can’t Escape Lawsuit From ‘Rust’ Script Supervisor

Alec Baldwin must face a lawsuit from Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell over his role in the on-set shooting that resulted in the death and injury of two crew members, a judge has ruled.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Whitaker on Tuesday refused to dismiss claims of assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence against the actor. He found that Mitchell established “extreme and outrageous conduct on the part of Baldwin,” who “unexpectedly cocked and fired a loaded handgun” despite being aware of a disastrous safety culture on the set of Rust where producers shirked industry-wide norms related to the use of guns to shoot the movie on a shoestring budget.

Mitchell will also be allowed to pursue punitive damages against Baldwin and his production company El Dorado Pictures for ignoring prior red flags that put them on notice of “firearms-safety-related problems on the set that endangered the cast and crew.” The judge concluded that the suit demonstrates “despicable conduct carried out by the Demurring Defendants with a willful and conscious disregard of the rights or safety of others.”

Luke Nikas, representing Baldwin, said that the court was “required to assume at this stage that Mitchell’s allegations against Alec Baldwin were true—even though they are demonstrably false, made in bad faith, and contradict her own prior statements about what happened.” He stressed that the court dismissed some of her claims and that he “looks forward to disproving the rest of her case now that she can no longer shield her misrepresentations from the evidence.”

The ruling is the first advancing a claim of assault against any of the defendants. Whitaker pointed to allegations detailing how Baldwin violated industry norms regarding the handling of firearms. These include the actor intentionally discharging the gun even though the scene didn’t call for it and accepting the firearm from assistant director Dave Halls despite industry norms dictating that the armorer is supposed to hand it off after showing that the gun chambers are empty.

“The industry wide safety bulletin for use of firearms mandates that all firearms are to be treated as though they are loaded because, as Alec Baldwin knew, guns are inherently dangerous weapons,” reads the ruling, which cites the complaint. “He had no right to rely upon some alleged statement by the Assistant Director that it was a ‘cold gun.’ Mr. Baldwin cannot hide behind the Assistant Director to attempt to excuse the fact that he did not check the gun himself.”

Claims of negligence against Baldwin and El Dorado Pictures were also allowed to proceed. The judge found that they owed a “duty of care” to Mitchell and other crew members to make the filming of the movie reasonably safe. The defendants may have breached their duties by failing to properly supervise firearms used for filming, Whitaker concluded.

In her suit, Mitchell alleged that the cart used for storing ammunition had been regularly left unattended throughout filming, that loaded firearms had been used by crew members for target practice in violation of safety protocols that were never implemented and that the producers of the movie should’ve hired an experienced armorer to manage the weapons instead of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. She also said there were “serious safety concerns” related to the use of firearms and live ammunition, detailing numerous workers walking off the job in protest of safety concerns prior to the fatal shooting.

A report from a New Mexico safety agency issued in April detailed two previous incidents in which firearms accidentally discharged on the set of Rust. The first misfire, which happened less than a week before the fatal shooting, occurred when props master Sarah Zachary inadvertently fired a blank round as she finished loading a 0.45 caliber revolver that was aimed at the ground. The second involved the stunt double for Baldwin, who said the gun “just went off.”

The decision from Whitaker follows an order in September dismissing most claims against Rust Movie Productions, Thomasville Pictures, Ryan Smith and Lengley Cheney, because they didn’t know Baldwin would actually shoot the gun that killed Hutchins.

Claims against El Dorado for assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress met the same fate for the same reasons, according to a court filing.

Gloria Allred, representing Mitchell, said that the court dismissed claims against El Dorado because “Alec Baldwin is the person who fired the gun, not El Dorado Productions, so [it] did not have specific intent.”