Illinois authorities extradite Rittenhouse
WAUKEGAN, ILL. >> A 17-year- old from Illinois accused of killing two demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been extradited to stand trial on homicide charges, with sheriff’s deputies in Illinois handing him over to their counterparts in Wisconsin shortly after a judge on Friday approved the contested extradition.
In his afternoon ruling that rejected Kyle Rittenhouse’s bid to remain in Illinois, Judge Paul Novak noted that defense attorneys had characterized the Wisconsin charges as politically motivated.
“This Illinois court shall not examine any potential political impact a Wisconsin District Attorney potentially considered in his charging decision,” Novak’s sixpage ruling said. He added that it is not for an Illinois judge to “reevaluate probable cause determined by a Wisconsin court.”
Immediately after Novak issued the ruling at the courthouse in Waukegan, Illinois, deputies with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office picked up Rittenhouse and drove him five miles to the Illinois-Wisconsin border, sheriff’s office spokesman Christopher Covelli told The Associated Press.
Rittenhouse was then turned over to Kenosha County sheriff deputies at the state line, Covelli said.
The ruling and speedy transfer came several hours after a hearing Friday morning in which Judge Novak heard arguments for and against extradition.
The shootings happened Aug. 25, two days after a white police officer trying to arrest Jacob Blake shot the 29-year- old Black man seven times in the back, paralyzing him from the waist down. Video of the police shooting sparked outrage and helped spur on the protests.
Rittenhouse’s case has become a rallying point for some conservatives who see him as a patriot who was exercising his right to bear arms during unrest. Others portray him as a domestic terrorist who incited protesters by showing up wielding a rifle.
At Friday’s hearing, Rittenhouse’s lawyer said he had a change of heart since notifying the court that he planned to call witnesses. Instead, John Pierce focused on what he called “fatal defects” in extradition papers.
A local prosecutor said the law is unambiguous in requiring Rittenhouse’s extradition.
“You can imagine the chaos if someone can commit a crime and step over the (state borderline) and get sanctuary,” Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Stephen Scheller told Novak.