Alec Baldwin' s involuntary manslaughter charges were dismissed with prejudice on Friday.
The actor burst into tears and was consoled by his lawyer alongside him in court when Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer delivered her verdict after the defense argued that evidence was hidden from them throughout the process. The judge called it a "needless and incurable delay" of justice that the evidence was not brought forward sooner. Initially, prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued that the evidence, which was ammunition from the scene, was not important to the case.
Alec's time in court came to an end on Friday, July 12 as the judge ruled to dismiss the charges without prejudice.
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According to Bruckheim & Patel "a case that gets dismissed with prejudice means it has been permanently dismissed. No matter the circumstances, if a case is dismissed with prejudice, it cannot be brought back to court. The case is done. Alternatively, a case dismissed without prejudice means the case can be brought back to court."
According to Eisner Gorin LLP , the case being dismissed without prejudice "is a legal term indicating that charges have been dismissed but can be refiled at some point. Charges may be dismissed without prejudice at the prosecutor's request, or they may be dismissed at the judge's discretion."
Opening statements began on Wednesday, July 10, nearly three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on the New Mexico set of the Western film Rust.
The judge said: "The state's willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate. If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching prejudice... There is no way for the court to right this wrong."
His wife, Hilaria Baldwin, was sat behind him when the judge delivered the news. The two hugged after Judge Sommer dismissed everyone from the courtroom. She also called it a "needless and incurable delay" of justice that the evidence was not brought forward sooner.
However, Luke Nikas, argued before the court: "If this evidence wasn't as important as we say it is, they would have turned it over. The fact that they concealed it, the fact that they put it in a separate document number, didn't disclosed a supplemental report, didn't disclose the bullets, didn't bring them to the April 6th evidentiary viewing. If it was that irrelevant, didn't have evidentiary value, it would have been there."
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