Questions flirt with mistrial, upset judge
The murder case against Kyle Rittenhouse flirted with a mistrial Wednesday after the lead prosecutor angered the judge with his questioning of the defendant.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys called him to testify about his actions on Aug. 25, 2020, when he shot three men, killing two and wounding a third, during protests on the streets of Kenosha that followed a white police officer shooting Jacob Blake, a Black man, while responding to a domestic disturbance.
Legal experts said doing so risked exposing Rittenhouse to harsh cross-examination, and lead prosecutor Thomas Binger did so — with a line of questioning that prompted Judge Bruce Schroeder to shout at him and say, “I don’t believe you,” at one point when Binger argued he had been acting in good faith.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys said they would seek a mistrial with prejudice — meaning the case could not be re-filed — and Schroeder said he would consider their motion later.
So what got the judge so angry?
Prosecutors earlier this year sought permission to introduce into evidence a brief video taken 15 days before the protest shootings, in which Rittenhouse is heard watching some men exit a CVS pharmacy and commenting that he wished he had his rifle so he could shoot them because he thought they were shoplifters.
Binger argued at a pretrial hearing that it showed Rittenhouse’s mindset as “a teenage vigilante, involving himself in things that don’t concern him.” But Schroeder questioned its relevance and said at a pretrial hearing that he was inclined not to allow it — but suggested he might reassess that at trial.