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Alec Baldwin shooting: Lawyer suggests potential sabotage on ‘Rust’ set.

The judge essentially held the prosecution intentionally and deliberated withheld (read: suppressed) potentially exculpatory evidence. Sadly this is not an isolated case. Evidently winning is sometimes more important than due process. Where's the emoji for head exploding? I'm not sure how it works there, but I wonder if such a finding by the court results in a referral to the State Bar of New Mexico.

I can't help thinking the judge has her finger on the pulse of the voters in New Mexico. Unlike being a judge in the federal judiciary, which is a lifetime appointment, in New Mexico judges must run for re-election every 6 years. Dismissing a high profile case, particularly with prejudice, and even where there might be solid grounds for the dismissal, is something which might otherwise be used against her in the event someone runs against her.
 
OK, finished watching today's proceedings.

Yesterday the defense made an amazing case on the crime scene technician hiding bullets that were turned in by a retired policeman by filing it under a different case number. She said she was told to do so. Today it was discovered that even the prosecutor was involved in decision for her to do that! The prosecution's entire defense was that they thought the live ammo that was turned in was not related to the case so that was that. Even I, as a non-lawyer know that it is not their job to decide that for the defense. They had evidence from a reliable source that would have clearly been related to the main issue of where the bullets came from. They claimed the source was not reliable since he was friends with the father of the armorer.

Crazy thing is that this witness was on the list to be used by the defense for the Armorer but he decided to not use him!

Worse for prosecution, they were caught multiple times not turning over all the evidence to the defense and got a pass from the judge.

The judge went through a number of cases that are precedence for dismissing the case with prejudice and clearly showed every aspect applied here. She is one of those no-nonsense judges you don't want to go sideways on. And sideways did the chief prosecutor.

Both of the Sherriff witnesses (the technician and chief detective) came across very poorly, constantly resorting to "I don't recall." Defense was very smart, often countering with, "but you don't deny" and in all cases they agreed! I am talking this happening dozens of times, clearly indicating some level of cover up.

These people were so incompetent. It took them a week to get a warrant to search the prop truck on the set where they found the rest of the rounds. They had no reason why they waited this long. They were warned by FBI that doing an accidental discharge test could render the gun damaged and they still went through with it. And of course the trigger was broken in half and defense could no longer test to see if it could be shot accidently.

I am wondering now if the Armorer defense will attempt to nullify her sentence and ask for a new trial!

Defense attorneys were young and likeable. Not what I could say about the Armorer defense attorney. They spoke very clearly and had great mastery of the case they wanted to make.

Many times we think of technicalities as a guilty party getting off for no reason. Such was NOT the case here. If there was a reason to dismiss a case due to poor conduct of the prosecution, this was it. Consequences of not putting Baldwin behind jail is not of much consideration compared to making sure rule of law and evidence is followed.
 
Forgot to mention: they took a month, a full month, to get a warrant to search the company's office that provided the ammo to the set! Can you imagine giving so much time to a major potential source of live rounds this much time? And get this, the security video was overwritten so no evidence there either. The prosecution simply did not pursue this path with any seriousness. Just incredible.

Granted, the Armorer also got ammo from her father but still, one needs to make sure the blanks were really blanks.

On that point, the blanks that were provided were extremely tarnished from the last set they had sent them to. So the guy sat there and polished them to make them look better. During that time, he realized that some of them did not have a clear rattle due to cleaning fluid possibly gone into them! Of course, he testified that every blank he sent was a real blank because he tested them. No other witness to this. Police just believed him.
 
1. I have read most of the thread. Actually almost all of it
2. I’ve worked on movie sets for over forty years, you think I’m going to be educated on gun use on sets by this thread?
3. Most movie guns are indeed inactive props. When you gave 20 back ground players playing cops and they all have guns. Those are inactive props.
Has nothing to do with guns used by actors that are featured and are used to fire on set.

Again, you have never been on a set. I’d bet you were utterly unaware of any on set safety protocols before this incident. Clearly you were unaware of all the work and negotiations that went into the new protocols after Brandon Lee was accidentally killed.

In effect what you are saying is we have collectively been doing it all wrong and just getting lucky for the past 3+ decades, we really needed to put the final responsibility on actors and further just plain forbid any real gun ever being pointed or used at all on a film set.
So did the Rust production follow the safety protocols?
 
I would hope they at least learned their lessons here, No live ammo on the set EVER, PERIOD.
The testimony said for the previous movie where this was done in Texas, it was off-site location. The armorer for Rust asked the supplier if she could have a) live rounds and b) use the prop gun for this purpose (live shooting). To his (only) credit, the supplier told here this was a really bad idea. And that armorer got live rounds herself from another source.
 
So did the Rust production follow the safety protocols?
With armorer never confessing, we just don't know what really happened.

If it were up to me, I would outlaw both the supplier, the armorer or anyone else remotely involved in the production having any access to live rounds.
 
I am wondering now if the Armorer defense will attempt to nullify her sentence and ask for a new trial!

First thing I thought about. It's a really high threshold to overcome, though.
 
The testimony said for the previous movie where this was done in Texas, it was off-site location. The armorer for Rust asked the supplier if she could have a) live rounds and b) use the prop gun for this purpose (live shooting). To his (only) credit, the supplier told here this was a really bad idea. And that armorer got live rounds herself from another source.

When the news came out with information on this case, I formed an opinion based on what I was hearing.
Now that information is coming out of the trial, everything looks different. I must admit, my first reaction was wrong.

Despite what many people think of the American court system, I see it as being pretty damn good. Not perfect, mind you, but still pretty damn good. I think the biggest problem is not with the court system, but with the media and their rabid fixation on lurid headlines and provocative stories.

Jim
 
So did the Rust production follow the safety protocols?
Two individuals, the first AD and the armorer did not follow safety protocols. And one of them is doing time for it. IMO they both should be.

“Production” is a subset of the people working on a given film. The first AD is generally seen as a member of “Production” so one member of production clearly failed to follow protocols. No one else in production failed to follow protocols as far as I know.
 
You must be awful lonesome. LOL
I am too busy traveling, boating & enjoying life to be bothered by much on screens.
Been thinking about hooking up a 3 year old Samsung 50" 4K that was given to me & running my oPPo 205 UDP through it & my stereo, as I have some Blu Ray concerts that I'd like to see again (with good sound): ZZ Top & such.
I once again have a couple of FM antenna's (Omni & Directional) that should get me anything within 85 miles when mounted to my chimney).
And a TV antenna that will do the same + about 15 miles. Yeah, it's 11 feet long but you cannot see my house with Google maps from the air due to tree cover (it looks like a green empty lot and you can see all my neighbors but not my place (unless you use the street view).
I understand that many are broadcasting over the air now in un-compressed 4K.
I'm planning on finding out.
When I get the time.
 
With armorer never confessing, we just don't know what really happened.

If it were up to me, I would outlaw both the supplier, the armorer or anyone else remotely involved in the production having any access to live rounds.
The NRA might take issue with any action taken against any suppliers. That’s going pretty deep in the chain of events.

Anything that looks remotely like any sort of gun control to the NRA gets a knee jerk reaction

The armorer has no excuses. When she is done doing time she will be looking for a new line of work
 
The NRA might take issue with any action taken against any suppliers. That’s going pretty deep in the chain of events.
This guy's only business is to supply guns and ammo for movies. His excuse for also having live rounds is what I mentioned: practice sessions offsite. I don't think that is enough value to have him mix live rounds with the rest of his props. The guy's shop by the way, resembled a hoarder's place. Can't believe someone with such responsibility keeping his warehouse and office in such shambles.
 
I mean check out this picture:

f0ccdf60e8747300019fd04835f8ee2a


How the heck does one trust this person to keep track of what is live and what is not?
 
I mean check out this picture:

f0ccdf60e8747300019fd04835f8ee2a


How the heck does one trust this person to keep track of what is live and what is not?
Identical and similar white boxes poorly marked and maybe containing ammunition? Ammo cans poorly marked too.
 
It is worse than that. Look at that gray plastic box on the left on the floor. I am fairly certain that a lot of rounds came from that!

He also left ammo in his sprinter van for weeks which he picked them from a set!
 
It is worse than that. Look at that gray plastic box on the left on the floor. I am fairly certain that a lot of rounds came from that!

He also left ammo in his sprinter van for weeks which he picked them from a set!
Disorganization of product and inventory in his line of work is simply reprehensible and inexcusable.
 
Maybe a solution is to hire an agent whose sole job is to bring live rounds to a set, then account for their use, and return of all such rounds when the event is done. This business of having live rounds on set seems to be at the core of this tragedy. Even an incompetent armorer would have had a hard time screwing this up if there were no live rounds on the set.
 
Two individuals, the first AD and the armorer did not follow safety protocols. And one of them is doing time for it. IMO they both should be.

“Production” is a subset of the people working on a given film. The first AD is generally seen as a member of “Production” so one member of production clearly failed to follow protocols. No one else in production failed to follow protocols as far as I know.
I’ve read some people walked off the set, citing safety violations.
 
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