Alec Baldwin's Attorney Denies Claim Actor Was 'Reckless' in 'Rust' Wrongful Death Lawsuit

etonline.com:

Alec Baldwin's lawyers released a statement just hours after Halyna Hutchins' estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him and the producers of, calling the «reckless» claims against them as «entirely false.»In a statement to ET, lawyers for Baldwin and the producers named in the lawsuit say Baldwin, Hutchins «and the rest of the crew relied on the statement by the two professionals responsible for checking the gun that it was a 'cold gun' — meaning there is no possibility of a discharge, blank or otherwise.»The lawyers say the protocol «has worked on thousands of films, with millions of discharges, as there has never before been an incident on a set where an actual bullet harmed anyone.» The statement went on to say that «actors should be able to rely on armorers and prop department professionals, as well as assistant directors, rather than deciding on their own when a gun is safe to us.»«Any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false,» the statement also said.In legal documents, obtained by ET, the Hutchins estate claims in the wrongful death suit that the «defendants had the power to prevent her death if they had only held sacrosanct their duty to protect the safety of every individual on a set where firearms were present instead of cutting corners on safety procedures where human lives were at stake, rushing to stay on schedule and ignoring numerous complaints of safety violations.»Some of the cost-cutting measures the estate claims Baldwin and production undertook included «hiring inexperienced and unqualified armorers or weapons masters, requiring the film’s armorer to split time as assistant props master, establishing and aggressively adhering to unreasonably rushed production schedules, and hiring.