Alec Baldwin has yet to hand over his cell phone to Santa Fe authorities investigating the deadly Rust shooting, even though a search warrant has been issued, and the actor has insisted he is complying with the investigation.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday issued an update on the matter. A search warrant for Baldwin’s phone was approved and executed on Dec. 16. Shortly thereafter, the actor’s lawyer acknowledged receipt of the warrant. When the phone was not handed over, the sheriff’s office then requested assistance from the district attorney’s office; all this information outlined in a Thursday media release from the sheriff’s office.
On Dec. 20, the sheriff’s office was notified that the district attorney’s office was in negotiations with Baldwin’s lawyer to “obtain consent to retrieve” the cell phone and its contents and communications.
To date, the phone has yet to be handed over, the sheriff’s office concluded.
The update comes days after the actor said he was complying with the investigation into last fall’s deadly production shooting. “Any suggestion that I am not complying with requests or orders or demands or search warrants about my phone, that’s bullshit, that’s a lie,” he said in a video he posted to social media on Jan. 8.
In response to the sheriff’s Thursday message, Baldwin’s civil attorney, Aaron Dyer, Mr. of Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman said in a statement, “We reached an agreement last weekend with the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office and the Santa Fe District Attorney’s Office, and Mr. Baldwin’s phone is being turned over this week for review. Ever since this tragic incident, Mr. Baldwin has continued to cooperate with the authorities, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply untrue. We requested that the authorities obtain a warrant so that we could protect his privacy on other matters unrelated to Rust and have been working through that process. We are finalizing logistics with the authorities in New York who are assisting in this matter.”
1:21 p.m.: Updated with a statement from Baldwin’s attorney.
