The family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer accidentally shot by Alec Baldwin on a film set last year, criticized the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office for its unprecedented, unredacted data dump from its investigation into the incident.
Brian Panish, attorney for Hutchins’ surviving husband and young son, said the sheriff’s office breached the family’s constitutional rights by releasing the video of Hutchins' final moments before clearing it with the family.
He called on the sheriff’s office to retract the video released Tuesday that shows the 42-year-old mother dying on the set outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Under New Mexico law, victims such as Hutchins and her family have the right to review such materials before they are released to the public and to request redactions, Panish said.
The sheriff’s office said Tuesday it was complying with New Mexico laws, which require it to make public records available. A representative of the sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The first time Mr. Hutchins saw the disturbing and unsettling video footage of his dying wife lying on the church floor was on Radar Online, an internet website,” Panish said in a letter sent to Sheriff Adan Mendoza on Wednesday and seen by the Los Angeles Times. “The potential consequences are disturbing given how information is misused on social media. We fear, for example, that this shocking footage of Andros’ mother dying may be material used by bullies to emotionally abuse him in the future.”
The trove of records and videos revealed the aftermath of the shooting last fall on the New Mexico film ranch in grisly detail. It included more than 200 pages of police reports, videos, still images and personal information such as numbers and email addresses of the crew, including Hutchins.
The rising star cinematographer’s final moments were shared with the world, as body cam footage of first responders attending to her and other material was downloaded so many times, the website platform crashed.
“Your office trampled on the constitutional rights of the Hutchins” family, Panish wrote. “The damage your office has done is irreparable.”
The sheriff had promised to allow Matthew Hutchins less than one business day to review the material before it was disseminated to the media, Panish said.
He added that the actions were not legally required, and authorities failed to redact personal identifier information.
“Taking down the video will end your office’s complicity in causing further harm,” Panish said.
Observers were stunned by the large volume of data the sheriff’s office released before authorities have even brought criminal charges.
The haul included police interviews with Baldwin, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed and others from the production.
