Following her 2021 death on the set of the low-budget western film,” Rust” filmmaker Halyna Hutchins ‘ Ukrainian family has renewed their legal battle against Alec Baldwin and other producers.
Hutchins ‘ family, Olga Solovey, parents, Anatolii Androsovych, and sister Svetlana Zemko— who all sit near the Ukranian capital of Kyiv— next week filed a legal negligence lawsuit in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The June 5 fit contends Hutchins ‘ death was caused by irresponsible behavior by maker- star Baldwin as well as the film’s producers, production managers and many crew members, who all were named as defendants.
Baldwin was pointing his Colt.45 pistol at , Hutchins, 42, who was standing less than four feet away, when the weapon discharged, authorities said. Aldwin did not realize that a live shot was inside the car’s chamber. Real ammunition was prohibited on sets in film industry protocols, and the” Rust” assistant director had made the announcement that the weapon was” cold,” meaning it contained no ammunition.
Hutchins died from her scars. The movie’s director, Joel Souza, was injured by the same shot but survived.
The fact that accused Baldwin strangely pointed and fired a cannon at Halyna Hutchins, according to Solovey’s complaint, “makes this event where injury or death was much more than just a chance — it was a good result,” the lawsuit claimed.
The new lawsuit comes a month before Baldwin is set to go on trial in New Mexico’s First Judicial District Court on an involuntary manslaughter charge. The actor was charged with one felony in January. He has pleaded not guilty.
Last month, a New Mexico judge rejected Baldwin’s attorneys ‘ attempts to have the indictment dismissed. If convicted, the actor faces up to 18 months in prison.
Gloria Allred, a victim’s rights lawyer in Los Angeles, brought the new lawsuit on behalf of Hutchins ‘ Eastern European relatives.
Allred’s other” Rust” client, script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, joined the Solovey lawsuit as a plaintiff. During the rehearsal on October 21, 2021, Mitchel was just four feet away from Baldwin.
Baldwin, through a spokesperson, declined to comment.
On Thursday, Rust Movie Productions ‘ attorneys were unavailable for comment.
Allred had previously filed a lawsuit against Baldwin and the” Rust” producers in Los Angeles Superior Court despite the accident occurring close to Santa Fe. According to Allred, that lawsuit was most recently dropped as part of the relocation’s to New Mexico.
The decision was made after a judge in Los Angeles determined that some important defendants in the case lacked “minimum contacts” in California, Allred claimed, making it nearly impossible to bring a case against those defendants there.
If the case had proceeded in California, the attorney did not specify which defendants would have been excluded. Alred did state that Baldwin did not count. Baldwin’s production company, El Dorado Pictures, is based in California.
A separate wrongful- death lawsuit brought by Hutchins ‘ husband, Matthew Hutchins, on behalf of their son, Andros, was settled in late 2022.
As part of that settlement, Matthew Hutchins became an executive producer of the movie” Rust”, which was completed last year in Montana. The settlement’s financial terms have not been made public.
A native of Ukraine,  , Hutchins moved to the U. S. to pursue her film career, which was taking off at the time of the accident.
She was a 2015 graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory, and had been selected as one of American Cinematographer’s Rising Stars two years before her death.
Her European relatives have claimed that the loss of Halyna Hutchins has devastated them. According to her mother, Solovey, the couple’s attorney, life has been “extremely difficult” since they received Matthew Hutchins ‘ traumatic call to claim that she had died after being shot on the movie set.
There have been multiple , negligence lawsuits , stemming from the tragedy, including by others who witnessed the shooting as they gathered in a wooden church at Bonanza Creek Ranch.
Solovey, Androsovych and Zemko’s civil suit names as defendants Rust Movie Productions LLC, Baldwin’s El Dorado Pictures, producers Ryan Donnell Smith and Langley Allen Cheney and their Thomasville Pictures LLC, producers Anjul Nigam, Nathan Klingher, Ryan Winterstern, Matthew Delpiano and Emily Salveson, and line producers with 3rd Shift Media in Georgia.
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez, who has been , convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and assistant producer David Halls, who pleaded no contest to negligent use of a weapon, were included as defendants in the suit.
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