ALEC KEEPING COPS ON HOLD
Hasn’t turned over phone – despite warrant
Alec Baldwin still hasn’t turned over his cellphone to police nearly a month after New Mexico authorities secured a search warrant for it following the fatal onset shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, police said on Thursday.
Investigators from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office want the phone because they believe it contains key conversations related to what led to the prop-gun death of Hutchins, 42, and wounding of director Joel Souza, 48, on the Santa Fe set of “Rust” last October.
Red tape
In a news release on Thursday, the office described the steps it had taken to obtain the phone but said “to date, the cellphone has not been turned over to authorities.”
Following the approval of the search warrant on Dec. 16, the lead detective investigating the death notified Baldwin’s attorney of the warrant over e-mail, police said, adding that the lawyer confirmed receipt of the document.
When Baldwin, 63, failed to immediately turn over the phone pursuant to the warrant, the Sheriff’s Office got the Santa Fe District Attorney’s Office involved. The DA’s Office said it was in negotiations with the actor’s attorney to get his consent to obtain the device and its contents.
Last week, the Sheriff’s Office for Suffolk County, LI, where Baldwin owns a home, said it received a request from Santa Fe authorities asking for help obtaining the phone, Sgt. Paul Spinella, a spokesman for the Suffolk County sheriff, told The Post on Thursday.
Spinella confirmed that his office received the warrant from Santa Fe but said that because the laws in New Mexico are written differently than New York’s, the request was sent to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office to determine its legality and how they could or could not help.
The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office wasn’t aware of where the matter stood early Thursday afternoon, and the Suffolk County DA’s Office didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
‘It’s a process’
Moments before Hutchins was killed on Oct. 21, Baldwin was practicing a “cross draw” with a revolver that he had been told was not loaded and was safe for on-set use.
He has said in interviews that he did not pull the trigger.
The actor said in an Instagram video Saturday that he was complying with the investigation and that any suggestion he wasn’t was “bulls- -t ” and “a lie.”
“This is a process where one state makes the request of another state,” he said in the video.
“It’s a process that takes time. They have to specify what they want. We are one thousand percent going to comply with all that.”
Baldwin’s attorney didn’t immediately return a request for comment.