Alec Baldwin, who has yet to turn over his cellphone to law enforcement in connection with the law enforcement investigation into the fatal shooting on the set of the movie “Rust, may be …
, may be holding onto the device for a number of reasons, legal experts told The Post on Friday.
“If he deleted text messages or call records then he would face the possibility of criminal contempt,” said Kearon, who works at the Long Island firm Barket Epstein Kearon. “Or if there are personal messages, for example, between he and his wife, it’s not shocking that he wouldn’t want them in the public domain.”
“It’s not consistent with his pledge early on to cooperate with law enforcement,” he said. “It certainly looks suspicious to the average person.” The actor may believe that handing over his “whole phone” is “over-broad,” and should be narrowed to only text messages and calls related to the case, said Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney Louis Shapiro.
“They’ll be looking for [texts saying] ‘Oh my god, I didn’t check the gun’ or ‘I hired someone who’s not competent’ — anything that’s incriminating or that could shed more light and give more context. Or anything that could show the culpability of other people,” he said.“Keep in mind, he gave an interview [to law enforcement]. You have to assume he and his lawyers knew what was on that phone so it wouldn’t be contradicted,” he said.