Alec Baldwin’s legal troubles deepened Thursday when the Ukrainian family of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was fatally shot on the set of ‘Rust’ in late 2021 after a gun in Baldwin’s hands discharged, sued the actor and others involved in the production.
The lawsuit - filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Hutchins’s father, mother and sister - cited battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and loss of consortium, which refers to the impact of Hutchins’s death on her personal relationships. The action comes several months after Hutchins’s husband settled a separate lawsuit against Baldwin and other production members, and a week after prosecutors charged the internationally famous actor and two others over the fatal shooting.
“I believe to let this go and to leave this unpunished is unallowable,” Hutchins’s sister, Svetlana Zemko, said in a video played at a news conference Thursday announcing the lawsuit.
Besides Baldwin, the lawsuit names the film’s production companies and several members of the crew, including armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, first assistant director David Halls, props master Sarah Zachry and Seth Kenney, an ammunitions supplier.
The complaint’s accusations partially mirror those made in other lawsuits related to the shooting and in the criminal case, contending that Baldwin and others on the set of “Rust” ignored multiple safety protocols in the days and hours leading up to Hutchins’s death.
Baldwin, who produced and acted in the low-budget western, was rehearsing a scene with a .45 Long Colt revolver in October 2021 when the weapon discharged. He would later say he didn’t pull the trigger, although New Mexico prosecutors allege that he did. The bullet passed through Hutchins and also struck director Joel Souza, who recovered from his injuries. Hutchins was pronounced dead at 42.
New Mexico prosecutors last week charged Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed with involuntary manslaughter. Each felony charge can be enhanced to carry a mandatory five-year sentence, depending on how a jury decides the case. Halls, who allegedly handed the gun to Baldwin before it went off, was charged under a plea deal with negligent use of a deadly weapon.
Representatives for Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed have protested the charges. The actor’s attorney, Luke Nikas, previously called it “a terrible miscarriage of justice.”
Hutchins’s husband, Matthew Hutchins, previously filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Baldwin, production companies and members of the film’s crew. The parties reached a settlement in October. Attorneys representing the cinematographer’s Ukrainian family stressed at a news conference that their lawsuit is separate, though the family hopes to reunite soon with Matthew and his son, Andros.
Hutchins’s family lives near Kyiv, where her mother, Olga Solovey, works as an emergency room operating nurse, according to the attorneys. The family recorded a video for the conference in which Zemko described “the utter suffering of our parents” and expressed her desire for “those who are at fault - for somebody - to carry that responsibility” for her sister’s death.
Gloria Allred, one of the attorneys representing the family, said there has “been no outreach to them by Mr. Baldwin to even say he was sorry.” She added that the actor “has been vigorously, through his attorneys, attempting to dismiss our case,” but has been “unsuccessful.”
“Whatever happens with the criminal case, we are pursuing this civil lawsuit for them to win justice,” Allred said.
