Alec Baldwin was offered lenient plea deal, prosecutors later withdrew it

Los Angeles, March 16 (IANS) Hollywood star Alec Baldwin, who is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, was offered a deal last October to plead to a misdemeanour.

According to a filing made public, he apparently served no jail time in the accidental shooting on the set of ‘Rust’, reports ‘Variety’.

But before he could decide whether to accept the terms, prosecutors withdrew the offer and told his lawyers they would seek to indict him, the filing states.

As per ‘Variety’, Baldwin was indicted in January on a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter, and now faces up to 18 months in prison if convicted at trial in July.

The latest revelation about the retracted plea offer was included among hundreds of pages of material made public on Friday as part of Baldwin’s effort to throw out the case.

According to the documents, special prosecutor Kari Morrissey offered “a plea deal identical to the petty misdemeanour deal accepted by Dave Halls”.

Halls, the first assistant director on ‘Rust’, did not serve prison time after pleading last year to a count of negligent handling of a deadly weapon. Instead, he was given six months of unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service, and an order to take a firearm safety class.

The filing states that the offer was made on October 5, and Baldwin was given until October 27 to decide whether to accept it. However, as per the filing on October 17, prosecutors informed Baldwin’s lawyer that the deal was off and they were proceeding to the grand jury.

–IANS

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