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Gotham
In The News
At Gotham Government Relations, we take pride in staying ahead of the curve when it comes to policy developments and current events that impact our esteemed clientele and team members. "Gotham In The News" is your go-to page for comprehensive coverage of news articles and videos that directly pertain to our areas of expertise.
![Youtube transcript
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
7:55 ticking on Congress to prevent a 7:57 financial](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/1b6091_5af6fdb13f8c47589bb55acc5068e21a~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_276,h_201,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Image-empty-state.png)
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