Gaffer sues Baldwin, others over film set shooting

Alec Baldwin and company will face punitive damages claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday by attorney Gary Dordick on behalf of “Rust” gaffer Serge Svetnoy.

Gary Dordick said his client wants to use the lawsuit to bring “awareness and change” to movie sets after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed during a rehearsal in October.

“Alec Baldwin took a real gun, pointed it at a group of human beings, pulled the trigger, shot the bullet, killing and seriously injuring people,” Dordick said after a news conference Wednesday. “That type of conduct is wanton recklessness, and punitive damages should be imposed. Nobody should ever assume that a gun is safe, and no one should take someone else’s word for it that it’s safe.”

Hutchins was killed Oct. 21 when Baldwin fired a bullet from a Colt .45 during a rehearsal on the set in New Mexico. The bullet narrowly missed Svetnoy but discharge materials from the blast struck him directly, according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court Wednesday. He suffered injuries, including severe emotional distress, it alleges.

The suit names 23 defendants including Baldwin, Rust Movie Production LLC and on-set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who Dordick said failed to safely store and supervise all firearms on the set.

Baldwin and others have said they did not know the gun was loaded and the shooting of Hutchins and director Joel Souza, was accidental.

Reed’s New Mexico lawyer, Jason Bowles of the Bowles Law Firm, floated the idea on national television last week, that the reason a live round was in the fateful firearm was sabotage and it was not his client’s fault. Responding to Bowles Wednesday, Dordick called the theory “suspect.”

“That sounds suspicious that that would occur and they wouldn’t tell anyone about it for three weeks after the shooting incident,” Dordick said. “But either way, she has a non-delegable duty to make sure the set was safe, that guns were safe and that no one had access to it to put a live round. In that, she failed. She should be held accountable for punitive damages.”

The suit is brought under a general negligence cause of action and seeks compensatory and general damages against all defendants but seeks punitive damages against Baldwin, Reed, the production company and first assistant director Dave Halls. Serge Svetnoy v. Rust Movie Productions LLC, 21STCV41392. (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed Nov. 10, 2021).