Reporters and editors almost always bear the blame for the culture of celebrity. But Santa Fe really is the city different this time.
No member of the media would still be writing about Alec Baldwin°®¶¹appif District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and her special prosecutor weren't preoccupied with the actor.
The state's case against Baldwin reeked of star-gazing from the beginning. Carmack-Altwies never would have secured special public financing or hired special prosecutors if Baldwin weren't famous. And an ordinary Joe who tragically erred as Baldwin did never would have been charged with a crime.
During rehearsal for the Western°®¶¹appRust°®¶¹appthree years ago near Santa Fe, Baldwin took hold of a Colt .45 revolver. The firearm was announced as "cold," meaning it contained no live ammunition.
The pistol that had been deemed safe by the movie's armorer discharged a bullet that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
The armorer was tried and convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Justice was served in that instance.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey°®¶¹appalso indicted Baldwin for the same crime. Never had a fourth-degree felony charge generated so much national and international publicity for civil servants in New Mexico.
With Baldwin as a defendant, Morrissey and Carmack-Altwies were sought out by national shows and publications. All the attention turned to humiliation after Morrissey failed to disclose certain ballistic evidence to the defense.
The trial judge, Mary Marlowe Sommer,°®¶¹appin July dismissed the case against Baldwin and ruled it cannot be refiled. She cited "egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct and false testimony."
Marlowe Sommer later rejected Morrissey's longwinded filing seeking to revive the criminal charge.
That should have been the end, but it wasn't. Morrissey has filed notice that she will ask the state Court of Appeals to overturn Marlowe Sommer's ruling.
Morrissey's continued pursuit of Baldwin will generate many incremental news stories in New Mexico. Television networks, national publications and news outlets covering Hollywood also will report on developments. They would be irresponsible not to cover an act of desperation by a publicly funded prosecutor's office.
While Morrissey pursues Baldwin on behalf of the district attorney, myriad victims of premeditated violent crimes await their day in court. The siblings of 22-year-old Cypress Garcia are two of them.
A robber shot and killed Garcia in August 2022 while he worked as a cashier at Blake's Lotaburger in EspaƱola. The thief proceeded to pistol-whip Garcia's younger brother, Cyress,°®¶¹appwho was overseeing the restaurant's nightside crew.
The suspect in the Lotaburger murder case has been charged in federal court with a series of crimes, notably interference with commerce by robbery°®¶¹appand being a felon in possession of a firearm.
But murder, the most serious crime, is a state charge that would have to be filed by Carmack-Altwies' staff. To date, 27 months after the gunman killed Garcia in hopes of pocketing a few lousy bucks, there's no homicide charge. Perhaps one will be filed after the federal prosecution concludes.
Crimes committed against the Garcia brothers won't bring prosecutors a fraction of the publicity that comes with Baldwin's case. The big East Coast papers and the network news programs won't cover the Lotaburger murder trial, if there is one.
The Garcias weren't in movies. They weren't known outside the EspaƱola Valley. The robber who killed one brother and bashed the other in the head six times with a pistol isn't of interest to a national audience.
While Garcia's family waits for justice in a cold-blooded killing, Morrissey will expend more public resources trying to resurrect her courtroom confrontation with Baldwin.
When Morrissey loses her appeal in the Baldwin case a year or two from now, she and Carmack-Altwies should personally have to pay all of the government's expenses, as well as attorneys' fees for the defense. That would be justice, and it might lead to a fresh set of priorities.
Residents of the Santa Fe-area judicial district might not like Baldwin, but they don't fear him. The 66-year-old actor isn't going to carjack and kill an elderly man in the parking lot near Best Buy. Baldwin won't peddle dope to kids or shoot a young worker at a Sonic Drive-In.
The late author David Halberstam often lectured about the culture of celebrity and its dumbing down of the planet. He criticized newspaper editors and television news directors for reporting on celebrities to the exclusion of important matters.
"We know so much about so little and so little about so much," Halberstam would say.
Editors across New Mexico aren't obsessing about Baldwin as they try to present an accurate daily snapshot of their communities. The same cannot be said of prosecutors who found the national spotlight through Baldwin.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.
