By Victor Li
\nOctober 16, 2026, 11:35 am CDT<\/p>\n
A federal judge in New Mexico has dismissed the bulk of actor Alec Baldwin\u2019s high-profile lawsuit against the prosecutors who previously charged him in connection with the fatal 2021 shooting on the movie set of Rust<\/em>, ruling that the defendants are largely protected by the doctrine of prosecutorial immunity.<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Kea Riggs of the District of New Mexico held that prosecutors Mary Carmack-Altwies and Andrea Reeb were entitled to absolute immunity regarding most of the individual counts filed against them by Baldwin. The judicial decision arrives just weeks after Judge Riggs dismissed similar claims lodged against special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, applying the exact same legal reasoning regarding the protective shield traditionally afforded to government attorneys in the performance of their official duties.<\/p>\n While acknowledging the serious nature of the claims brought forward by the actor, Judge Riggs emphasized the established legal boundaries that shield prosecutors from civil litigation stemming from their core charging and trial functions. Even though the court expressed deep concern regarding the underlying allegations of misconduct leveled against defendants Carmack-Altwies and Reeb, it ultimately recognized that, as state prosecutors, they are fully entitled to invoke the robust protection of absolute prosecutorial immunity for the vast majority of their official actions.<\/p>\n The sprawling legal saga traces its origins back to a tragic afternoon in October 2021 on the remote movie set of the Western film Rust<\/em>, located at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. During a routine rehearsal on set, a prop pistol held by Baldwin discharged, resulting in the fatal wounding of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. The incident triggered a massive multi-agency law enforcement investigation, intense public scrutiny, and a complicated web of criminal charges and civil litigation that has spanned several years.<\/p>\n Following an exhaustive investigation and shifting legal strategies, Baldwin was formally charged with involuntary manslaughter by state prosecutors in 2023. However, the criminal case against the actor dramatically unraveled and was ultimately dismissed with prejudice in July 2024. The presiding judge in that criminal proceeding ruled that the prosecution had engaged in egregious discovery violations, withholding crucial evidence from the defense and severely compromising the fairness of the judicial process.<\/p>\n Emboldened by the collapse of the criminal case, Baldwin subsequently pivoted to the offensive, filing a sweeping civil lawsuit in early 2025. In his complaint, the actor alleged a pattern of malicious prosecution, defamation, civil rights violations, and various forms of professional and personal misconduct by the legal team that had pursued him in court. <\/p>\n Despite the dismissal of several major counts, Judge Riggs\u2019s recent ruling leaves narrow pathways open for portions of Baldwin\u2019s civil action to move forward. The federal judge explicitly ruled that Carmack-Altwies did not enjoy absolute immunity from claims tied directly to her alleged role in investigating and subsequently destroying the prop gun at the center of the tragedy. Riggs reasoned that investigative and evidence-destruction activities of that nature fall outside the traditional scope of advocacy and are too far removed from the core judicial process to warrant absolute protection. Furthermore, claims concerning Carmack-Altwies\u2019s alleged public media statements and her direct involvement in the preliminary law enforcement investigation will also be permitted to proceed, largely because the prosecutor had not formally sought their dismissal in her initial motions.<\/p>\n The court also scrutinized the dual role played by Andrea Reeb, noting that Reeb had violated constitutional separation of powers principles by simultaneously serving as a state legislator and as a special prosecutor on the high-profile case. Nevertheless, Judge Riggs concluded that Reeb still retained the underlying legal authority to prosecute the matter. Consequently, the judge declined to dismiss a few lingering, vague, and undated allegations directed at Reeb, determining that it remained legally premature at this juncture to definitively decide whether absolute or qualified immunity would ultimately apply to those specific counts.<\/p>\n Legal representatives for the targeted prosecutors expressed satisfaction with the federal court’s measured outcome. Luis Robles, the attorney representing the prosecutors, stated that his clients were profoundly relieved and heartened by Judge Riggs\u2019s decision to throw out the core allegations of the civil complaint. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, representatives and legal counsel for Alec Baldwin did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the federal judge’s ruling. As the civil litigation moves forward on its remaining narrow fronts, the broader legal fallout from the tragic events on the Rust<\/em> set continues to wind its way through the American court system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Victor Li October 16, 2026, 11:35 am CDT A federal judge in New Mexico has dismissed the bulk of actor Alec Baldwin\u2019s high-profile lawsuit against the prosecutors who previously charged him in connection with the fatal 2021 shooting on the movie set of Rust, ruling that the defendants are largely protected by the doctrine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2626,2551,2552,1534,17,2549,229,2627,19,823,15,2625,18,1121,16,2553],"class_list":["post-1922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-and-regulatory-news","tag-absolute","tag-alec","tag-baldwin","tag-citing","tag-compliance","tag-dismisses","tag-federal","tag-immunity","tag-judge","tag-lawsuit","tag-legal","tag-majority","tag-policy","tag-prosecutors","tag-regulatory","tag-rust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}