Judge: Prosecutors can’t link Rittenhouse to Proud Boys
MADISON, WIS. >> A judge ruled Friday that prosecutors can’t argue that a man who shot three people during a protest against police brutality in Wisconsin is affiliated with the Proud Boys or that he attacked a woman months before the shootings, bolstering his position as he prepares for a politically charged trial.
Kyle Rittenhouse is set to stand trial beginning Nov. 1 on multiple counts, including homicide. The 18-year-old argues he opened fire in self-defense after the men attacked him. Prosecutors say they have infrared video from an FBI surveillance plane that shows Rittenhouse followed and confronted the first man he shot.
Kenosha was in the throes of several nights of chaotic demonstrations after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man who was paralyzed from the waist down. Rittenhouse traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, about 20 miles to Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, in response to a call on social media to protect businesses there.
Rittenhouse shot Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz with an ARstyle semiautomatic rifle, killing Rosenbaum and Huber and wounding Grosskreutz.
During a hearing Friday on several motions, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger asked to argue at trial that Rittenhouse subscribes to the Proud Boys’ white supremacist philosophies and violent tactics. Binger pointed out that Rittenhouse was seen at a bar with members of the white nationalist group’s Wisconsin chapter in January and traveled to Miami days later to meet the group’s national president.
Binger also asked the judge to allow evidence that Rittenhouse attacked a woman in June 2020 as she was fighting his sister. He also wants to show jurors video from 15 days before the shootings in which Rittenhouse said he would like to shoot some men he thought were shoplifting from a pharmacy.
Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder said the June fight and interactions Rittenhouse has had with the Proud Boys are relevant to the shootings. He deferred a decision on the pharmacy video.