Alec Baldwin To Be Charged In Deadly ‘Rust’ Shooting. Analysis w/ NY Attorney David Schwartz -WABC 7

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0:03 of this news earlier today that actor 0:05 Alec Baldwin will be charged for that 0:07 deadly shooting on the set of his movie 0:08 rust now sadly this is nowhere near the 0:11 first time somebody has lost their life
0:13 on a movie set here in the U.S since 0:15 1990 it's happened at least 43 times and 0:18 on top of that more than 150 people have 0:20 suffered life-altering injuries while 0:23 filming but far more rare are there
0:26 circumstances we're talking about right 0:27 now with charges as serious as 0:29 involuntary manslaughter the nature of 0:32 that crime varies from state to state 0:33 Although our investigative reporter 0:35 Kristen Thorne sat down with defense 0:37 attorney and legal expert David Schwartz 0:39
earlier today to better understand 0:40 exactly what we're talking about with 0:41 the magnitude of the charges 0:44 first I want to get your reaction to 0:47 this charge today the news of this 0:48 charge 0:51 well I'm 0:52 entirely surprised the 0:55 the fact-based charge and and there was 0:57 a long investigation and I think the 1:01 prosecutors could have gone either way 1:03 they could have not charged Alec Baldwin 1:05
but they also had enough negligence in 1:09 this case and that's the standard is a 1:11 negligent standard where they where they 1:14 created a high enough bar to bring 1:18 criminal charges let's explain to people
1:20 what involuntary manslaughter is I'm 1:24 familiar with that because of what I do 1:25 you're familiar with that what does that 1:28 mean 1:29 sure you know in New York it's it's 1:31 different than New Mexico so in New 1:33 Mexico 1:34 the theory is where there's a lawful 1:37 activity going on at that time but there 1:40
was negligence involved with the 1:42 activity meaning that a reasonable 1:45 person would not have acted the way Alec 1:48 Baldwin did a reasonable person would 1:50 have taken other precautions before 1:53 firing the weapon so 1:55 um you know so it's a different standard 1:58 so it's that reasonable person's 2:00
standard and the fact that he was 2:02 handling a gun involves an enhancement 2:05 so the enhancement uh brings it up to a 2:09 potential of five years in jail the 2:11 regular involuntary manslaughter charge 2:14 is a year and a half speaking of jail 2:18 prison time do you think he's going to 2:19 do any 2:21 I don't think so if he does do jail time 2:23 it'll be minimal jail time uh either 2:26 this case is going to have a disposition 2:29
where there's a plea bargain and Alec 2:32 Baldwin will have to plead guilty to a 2:34 crime and and then that would involve 2:37 probably little to no jail or he's going 2:40 to go to trial and face the maximum of 2:43 five years in jail we'll see what 2:45 happens if he goes to trial it'll be one 2:47 of those Blockbuster trials that's for 2:49 sure but there's a good chance that this 2:51 case could settle uh before that point 2:54 his attorney called this a quote 2:57 terrible miscarriage of Justice what do 2:59 you think 3:00 if I were his attorney I would say the 3:03 same exact thing I think Alec Baldwin 3:05 has a lot of arguments I think Alec 3:07 Baldwin has the argument that this is 3:09 just a horrible horrible accident that 3:12 took place but there was no negligence 3:14 on his part and if there was no 3:16 negligence on his part why should he be 3:18 charged he's claiming that he had no 3:21 idea and would have no idea that there 3:24 could be live ammunition in that gun as 3:27 opposed to the prosecutors are saying 3:29 wait a second you should have known that 3:32
this was a dangerous situation there was 3:34 a danger involved in this whole episode 3:37 there was negligence throughout there 3:39 was cutting of corners and they feel 3:42 they have enough evidence to show that 3:44 Alec Baldwin was negligent so his 3:48 attorney is going to argue look this is 3:50 a civil case not a criminal case and the 3:52 civil case was already 3:54 um uh you know the civil case uh has had 3:58 a disposition already 4:00 what do you think one thing that's 4:03 bothered me I don't know if it's 4:04
bothered you is how did that bullet end 4:07 up in that gun in the first place 4:09 doesn't that seem to be kind of really 4:12 an issue here 4:13 it's a huge issue and the prosecutors 4:17 need to explain that issue because you 4:19 would think if they had a person that 4:23 actually put the live round in that gun 4:25 well aren't we talking a little bit more 4:27 about voluntary manslaughter and maybe 4:29 even murder aren't we talking about that 4:31 if somebody takes a gun that's going to 4:34 be used on a set and instead of putting
4:36 blanks in knowingly puts in live 4:38 ammunition I think we're more on the 4:40 murder realm so it leads me to believe 4:42 that they don't have that that the 4:45 prosecutors have not figured out how 4:47 that live rounds got into that gun and 4:50 if it goes to trial I don't think it 4:52 will either but if it does that will 4:54 obviously be a huge discussion 4:58 absolutely I mean if you're the defense 5:01 attorney just saying you know where 5:03 where's the proof like who put this live 5:06 live live bullet in this gun certainly 5:09 Alec Baldwin did not because he's not 5:12 being charged with that so you know I I 5:15 think the prosecutors have a lot of 5:17 barriers to overcome in this case I 5:19 think the defense does have a viable
5:21 case but so does the prosecution it's 5:24 one of those close calls which makes 5:26 this case a very interesting case and 5:28 it's very fact specific and it could be 5:31 based on many different nuances that we
5:33 don't know about right now yeah because 5:35 if it goes to trial that is not going to 5:37 be a good look for law enforcement and 5:39 prosecutors here that they have not been 5:41 able to pinpoint who did that because 5:43 the really lucky person here is whoever 5:46 put that bullet in that gun it didn't do 5:48 it by itself it didn't walk into the 5:51 chamber and into the gun someone did it 5:53 and I am still very curious and and 5:56 think that person needs to be held 5:58 account as well 5:59 Kristen that sounded like an opening
6:01 statement right there a hundred percent 6:03 a hundred percent that that is what the 6:06 defense is going to argue but we don't 6:08 know what's happening right now right is 6:11 the investigation over who knows Kristen 6:13 we may see somebody charged with putting 6:16 that bullet in the chamber so we don't
6:18 know what's about to come next but I'm 6:20 led to believe at least by these charges 6:23 today that they don't have that person 6:25 and they're they're going strictly on a 6:29 negligence standard as it goes to Alec 6:31 Baldwin what he should have known did he 6:34 act like a reasonable person did he 6:37 exercise the reasonable amount of care 6:39 that he should have in that situation 6:41 when handling a gun
6:44 if you were his attorney right now or 6:46 maybe you can give us some insight what 6:48 are they talking about right now 6:50 well first they're talking about 6:51 shutting him up okay he can't do any 6:53
more interviews he can't go out in the 6:55 Press he needs to stop talking because 6:59 everything he says could be used against 7:01 them at this point and before this point 7:04 so that's the first thing the second
7:07 thing is they're trying to get as much 7:09 information from him as possible but I'm 7:11 sure they have their own team of 7:12 investigators right now who are 7:15 conducting uh their own interviews their 7:17 own analysis and their own investigation 7:20 so their own investigation could come up 7:23 big in this case as well 7:25 well thank you so much I hope you'll 7:27 stay in touch with us we know that this 7:29 is the charges are formally you know are 7:31 going to be announced later this month 7:33 and so we know that this will still be 7:35 be going on so thank you so much for 7:37 being with us 7:38 thank you Kristen 7:40
coming up next on the Eyewitness News 7:42 countdown uh discussion about what is on 7:44 the line when it comes to raising the 7:45 federal debt limit in the United States 7:49 [Music] 7:50 welcome back to the Eyewitness News 7:52 Countdown the U.S has now hit its debt 7:54 ceiling and that means the clock is now
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