Two crew members for the film “Rust” were granted motions Monday, releasing them as defendants in a cross-complaint Alec Baldwin filed against them and other movie crew members, finding a California court could not exercise personal jurisdiction over the pair.
In his cross-complaint filed in November, Baldwin, 65, alleges that crew members negligently put live ammunition in the gun that he was holding when it discharged during a rehearsal, killing 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza, now 49, on Oct. 21, 2021.
The cross-complaint stems from an underlying complaint by script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, who sued Baldwin and other crew members alleging she suffered emotional distress from being so close to the shooting.
Both armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and prop master Sarah Zachry filed motions to quash a service of a summons in the Baldwin cross-complaint, maintaining they have no significant ties to California.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael E. Whitaker agreed. Addressing Zachry’s argument, the judge said it would be “unfair and unreasonable for Zachary to answer to Baldwin’s cross-complaint in California when she, a resident of New Mexico, was hired in New Mexico for a film production that was to occur in New Mexico, and her only contacts, albeit limited, with California entities and individuals were solely related to her job duties.”
Whitaker noted that Gutierrez-Reed lives in Arizona, was hired by Rust Movie Productions — a New Mexico corporation — for a film production that was to occur in New Mexico and that her contacts with California entities and individuals “were not directly attendant to her employment with the “Rust” production.
Attorneys for Baldwin, Gutierrez-Reed and Zachry accepted the ruling without arguing to the judge.
Baldwin and the 25-year-old Gutierrez-Reed were both originally charged with involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death, but charges were later dropped against the actor.