By Victor Li
\nOctober 16, 2026, 11:35 am CDT<\/p>\n
A federal judge in New Mexico has dismissed the vast majority of actor Alec Baldwin\u2019s civil lawsuit against the prosecutors who previously sought to convict him in connection with the fatal 2021 shooting on the movie set of Rust<\/em>, anchoring her decision on the broad legal protections afforded by prosecutorial immunity. <\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Kea Riggs of the District of New Mexico issued a ruling holding that former and current prosecutors Mary Carmack-Altwies and Andrea Reeb were entitled to absolute immunity regarding most of the civil counts brought against them by Baldwin. The decision follows a closely watched legal saga that has unspooled across both state and federal courts in the wake of the tragedy on the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe. <\/p>\n Judge Riggs\u2019s ruling comes just weeks after she dismissed parallel claims filed by Baldwin against special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, applying the same legal rationale regarding the sweeping protections traditionally granted to prosecutors carrying out their official duties. <\/p>\n Even as she applied the legal doctrine, Judge Riggs acknowledged the troubling nature of the underlying behavior alleged by the plaintiff. In her written decision, the judge noted that while the court harbored significant concerns regarding the allegations of misconduct leveled against defendants Carmack-Altwies and Reeb, it was nonetheless legally bound to recognize that, as prosecutors acting within the scope of their official duties, they are entitled to invoke the formidable protections of absolute prosecutorial immunity.<\/p>\n The civil lawsuit at the center of Judge Riggs\u2019s recent ruling has its roots in an October 2021 incident that shocked the entertainment industry and legal observers alike. During a rehearsal for the Western film Rust<\/em>, a prop firearm held by Baldwin discharged, resulting in the tragic death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. The ensuing criminal investigation and subsequent charging decisions triggered years of intense legal scrutiny, investigative disputes, and public controversy.<\/p>\n Baldwin was formally charged with involuntary manslaughter by New Mexico prosecutors in 2023, setting the stage for a high-stakes criminal trial. However, that prosecution unraveled dramatically in July 2024 when the presiding judge threw the case out entirely. The criminal dismissal was ordered after the defense successfully demonstrated that state prosecutors had engaged in what the court characterized as egregious discovery violations, failing to properly handle and disclose crucial evidence related to the live rounds that found their way onto the movie set.<\/p>\n Buoyed by the collapse of the criminal case against him, Baldwin pivoted to the offensive in early 2025, filing a federal civil rights and tort lawsuit against the prosecutors and key legal figures involved in his indictment. In his complaint, Baldwin alleged a pattern of malicious prosecution, defamation, and severe violations of his constitutional civil rights, arguing that the authorities pursued him improperly and engaged in bad-faith conduct to salvage a flawed case.<\/p>\n Despite finding that the core of Baldwin\u2019s malicious prosecution and civil rights claims were barred by absolute immunity, Judge Riggs\u2019s ruling did not completely close the door on all aspects of the actor’s civil complaint. The federal judge carved out specific exceptions where she determined that absolute immunity did not apply, allowing certain narrow claims to move forward.<\/p>\n Notably, Judge Riggs ruled that Carmack-Altwies did not enjoy absolute immunity from claims tied to her alleged personal role in investigating and destroying the firearm involved in the incident. In her opinion, the judge reasoned that such investigative hands-on actions and physical destruction of evidence fell outside the core judicial process and were too far removed from courtroom advocacy to warrant absolute protection. Furthermore, claims concerning Carmack-Altwies\u2019s alleged public media statements and her broader involvement in directing the day-to-day law enforcement investigation will also be allowed to proceed, largely because the prosecutor had not formally sought their dismissal in that portion of the litigation.<\/p>\n Judge Riggs also addressed complex legal questions surrounding the dual roles held by Andrea Reeb. The judge found that Reeb had violated constitutional separation of powers principles by simultaneously serving as a New Mexico state legislator and acting as a special prosecutor on the high-profile case. Despite identifying this constitutional tension, Riggs concluded that Reeb nevertheless retained the underlying legal authority to prosecute the case. At the same time, the federal judge declined to dismiss a handful of what she described as vague and undated allegations directed at Reeb, determining that it was premature at this procedural stage to definitively decide whether immunity applied to those specific, less-defined claims.<\/p>\n Legal representatives for the targeted prosecutors expressed satisfaction with the federal court’s overarching decision. Luis Robles, the attorney representing the defendants, stated in comments to Courthouse News Service that his clients were both relieved and heartened by Judge Riggs\u2019s ruling, which shields them from the vast majority of the civil liabilities and monetary damages sought by the Hollywood actor.<\/p>\n Counsel for Alec Baldwin did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Courthouse News Service regarding the federal judge’s decision to trim the lawsuit down to a handful of surviving claims. <\/p>\n The federal civil proceedings represent only one front in the ongoing legal fallout stemming from the Rust<\/em> production. Parallel civil litigation, negligence claims, and accountability disputes involving various other entities and individuals connected to the fateful film set continue to weave their way through the judicial system as the broader legal community absorbs the long-term ramifications of the tragedy.<\/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 vast majority of actor Alec Baldwin\u2019s civil lawsuit against the prosecutors who previously sought to convict him in connection with the fatal 2021 shooting on the movie set of Rust, anchoring her decision on the broad legal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2626,2551,2552,2550,1534,17,2549,229,2627,19,823,15,18,1121,16,2553],"class_list":["post-2130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-and-regulatory-news","tag-absolute","tag-alec","tag-baldwin","tag-bulk","tag-citing","tag-compliance","tag-dismisses","tag-federal","tag-immunity","tag-judge","tag-lawsuit","tag-legal","tag-policy","tag-prosecutors","tag-regulatory","tag-rust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2130","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}