Rittenhouse friend to avoid prison time

The man who bought a rifle for the minor strikes a plea deal.

MADISON, Wis. — The man who bought an AR-15style rifle for Kyle Rittenhouse pleaded no contest Monday to a reduced charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, in a deal with prosecutors that allows him to avoid prison.

Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder accepted Dominick Black’s plea during a six-minute hearing.

As part of the deal, Asst. Dist. Atty. Thomas Binger dropped two felony counts of intent to deliver a dangerous weapon to a minor.

Contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months in jail, but Binger reduced the charge to a noncriminal county ordinance violation.

Under the deal, Black will pay a $2,000 fine. Each felony count would have been punishable by up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Rittenhouse used the rifle to shoot three people, killing two, during a tumultuous night of protests in 2020 in Kenosha over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer.

A jury in November acquitted Rittenhouse of homicide and other charges.

Binger told Schroeder he didn’t believe he could move forward with the felony counts against Black, who had testified against Rittenhouse. Binger noted that during Rittenhouse’s trial, Schroeder sided with defense attorneys who argued that Wisconsin law prohibits minors from possessing short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns but allows them to possess long guns.

“In these circumstances, to go forward with these felony charges against Mr. Black, given the court’s legal ruling as well as Mr. Black’s cooperation and the jury’s decision in the Rittenhouse case, does not seem appropriate,” Binger said.

Black’s attorney, Tony Cotton, said nothing except to confirm the deal. In an email to the Associated Press after the hearing, he said that “justice was done.”

“The District Attorney’s Office did the right thing by agreeing to dismiss the felony charges against our client especially considering that a jury found Rittenhouse not guilty,” Cotton said.

Black was 18 and dating Rittenhouse’s sister when he purchased an AR-15-style rifle for Rittenhouse in May 2020. Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Ill., was 17. Black testified during Rittenhouse’s trial that he bought the rifle so that he and Rittenhouse could target-shoot and hunt on a friend’s property in northern Wisconsin.

Three months later, in August 2020, Rittenhouse used the rifle to shoot Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz. Rosenbaum and Huber died of their wounds. Rittenhouse is white, as were all of the people he shot.

Rittenhouse argued that he fired in self-defense after the men attacked him. On the last day of the trial, Schroeder dismissed a charge of being a minor in possession of a firearm.

Binger on Monday told Schroeder that he expected the judge would dismiss the felony counts against Black based on that decision. He also told Schroeder he didn’t agree with his interpretation of state law and suggested that the district attorney’s office might appeal that ruling.

The rifle was tagged as evidence in Rittenhouse’s trial. His attorney, Mark Richards, said Rittenhouse wants it to be destroyed.