The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said Rust actor and co-producer Alec Baldwin’s cell phone has yet to be turned over under a search warrant issued almost a month ago, but authorities say the issue should be resolved soon.
The warrant was approved for a search of Baldwin’s cell phone on December 16 as part of the investigation into the shootings in which cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Souza were killed on the rust set at Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe .
The sheriff’s office said in a press release Thursday that “legal concerns” had partially added to the delay in obtaining Baldwin’s phone, leading to the involvement of First District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies.
“On December 20, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office was notified that the district attorney was negotiating with Mr. Baldwin’s attorneys to seek consent to search the phone and its contents,” the press release said.
Prosecutor’s spokeswoman Franchesca Perdue said the problem should be resolved “fairly quickly”.
“We obviously had to get involved over the jurisdiction issue – it was outside of New Mexico, so we kind of helped ease the warrant here,” she said.
Perdue was unable to provide further information on what the jurisdiction issue was and how it was resolved.
Baldwin said on Twitter and in other statements that he was fully cooperating with the authorities in their investigations. To date, however, the phone has not been handed over to the authorities, the message says.
Baldwin’s attorney, Aaron Dyer, said in a statement Thursday that his client had been continuously cooperative with the police and that any suggestion to the contrary was “simply untrue”.
“We reached an agreement with the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office and the Santa Fe District Attorney’s Office last weekend, and Mr. Baldwin’s phone is due for review this week,” said Dyer.
“We have asked for the authorities to obtain an arrest warrant so we can protect his privacy in other matters unrelated to Rust and have gone through that process. We complete the logistics with the authorities in New York who will help with this matter. “
Comments are closed.