SCOTT BAUER
Sat, October 30, 2021,
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — From the moment Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people on the streets of Kenosha during protests over the police shooting of a Black man, he’s personified America’s polarization.
The 17-year-old from Illinois who carried an AR-style rifle and idolized police was cheered by those who despised the Black Lives Matter movement and the sometimes destructive protests that followed George Floyd’s death. He was championed by pro-gun conservatives who said he was exercising his Second Amendment rights and defending cities from “antifa,” an umbrella term for leftist militants.
Others saw him as the most worrisome example yet of vigilante citizens taking to the streets with guns, often with the tacit support of police — a “chaos tourist,” in the words of the lead prosecutor, who came to Kenosha looking for trouble.
Though Rittenhouse and all three men he shot are white, many people saw racism at the heart of Kenosha — an armed white teen, welcomed by police to a city where activists were rallying against a white officer’s shooting of a Black man, and allowed to walk past a police line immediately after shooting three people.
That division is likely to be on display at Rittenhouse's trial, which opens Monday with jury selection. Rittenhouse, now 18, faces several charges, including homicide — and could see a life sentence if convicted.
“It’s another battle in what has become the central story of our time —- the culture wars,” John Baick, who teaches modern American history at Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts, said.
In many ways, the key question at trial is simple: Was Rittenhouse acting in self-defense? Plentiful video exists of the events in question, and legal experts see a strong case for that. The judge overseeing the trial, Bruce Schroeder, has said forcefully that it "is not going to be a political trial.”
But the case has been exactly that, almost from the moment the shootings happened — driven by powerful interest groups, extremists, politicians and others using it to push their own agendas.
Rittenhouse’s defenders, including his family, have leaned into some of the symbolism. A website devoted to his defense — and raising money for it — greets visitors with a quote attributed to James Monroe: “The right of self-defense never ceases.” The site blasts “Big Tech, a corrupt media, and dishonest politicians” out to “ruin the life of Kyle Rittenhouse.” The site briefly sold branded “Free Kyle” merchandise before vendors backed away.
Ryan Busse, a former firearms industry executive who is now a senior adviser at the gun-safety organization Giffords, which was founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, said he's worried that Rittenhouse will become “some heroic martyr.”
“I’m worried about empowering more actors like him who think it’s glamorous to go kill somebody with a rifle,” Busse said.
Rittenhouse made the 20-mile (32-kilometer) trip from his home in Antioch, Illinois, north to Kenosha as the city was in the throes of several nights of chaotic demonstrations after an officer shot Jacob Blake in the back following a domestic disturbance. At least one call had gone out on social media for armed citizens to respond, though Rittenhouse's attorneys say that wasn't what brought Rittenhouse to the city.
Videos taken that night show him with a first-aid kit at his side, along with his rifle, bragging about his medical abilities. Video also shows police appearing to welcome Rittenhouse and other armed citizens, including handing them bottles of water.
Later in the evening, video shows a man named Joseph Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse in the parking lot of a used car dealership; seconds later, Rittenhouse shoots and kills him. In the ensuing minutes, Rittenhouse — pursued by other protesters — shot and killed Anthony Huber, who swung a skateboard at him, and shot and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, who had stepped toward Rittenhouse with a pistol in hand.
Video then shows Rittenhouse walking toward police with his hands up, his rifle slung over his shoulder, as protesters yell that he has just shot people. Rittenhouse went back home, turning himself into police the next day.
The day Rittenhouse was arrested, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, tweeted that the shootings had been committed by a “white supremacist domestic terrorist.”
Rittenhouse's defense team pushed back against that, saying Rittenhouse isn't a white supremacist and wasn't aware of “hateful rhetoric” on social media about the Kenosha protests leading up to the shootings. The Anti-Defamation League found no evidence of extremism in his social media accounts.
But Rittenhouse was embraced by the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group that generally traffics in white nationalism, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group’s chairman, Enrique Tarrio, and other members have been shown wearing T-shirts that say, “Kyle Rittenhouse Did Nothing Wrong!” And soon after being freed on bond, Rittenhouse was photographed at a Wisconsin bar with people who flashed a hand signal associated with the Proud Boys and sang a song that has become an anthem of the group. Rittenhouse flashed the hand signal, too.
The fact that Rittenhouse wasn’t a member of any extremist group before the shootings doesn’t matter now given how he’s been embraced by them, said Alex Friedfeld, an investigative researcher for the Center on Extremism with the Anti-Defamation League.
He said extremists will be looking to turn the trial to advantage. Some view the mere fact that Rittenhouse was charged as evidence that courts and the system are stacked against conservatives, or that the system is biased against white people, Friedfeld said.
“It starts to kind of lay the groundwork for the idea that people need to tear down these institutions and the system is broken and needs to be changed, which requires action,” he said.
Baick, the historian, called the Rittenhouse trial “a moment for reality TV" and said the entire case takes its place amid one of the nation's most turbulent periods in generations.
“We have to link in Jan. 6,” he said. “We have to link in military groups across the country, anti-mask protests, school board protests. Whether it's Kenosha, or Minneapolis, or the entire state of Florida, these debates over the role of government, the role of law and order — these are deeply unsettled in America right now in a way they haven't been since the 1960s.”
___
Associated Press writer Doug Glass contributed from Minneapolis.
___
Find AP’s full coverage on the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse at: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
Sat, October 30, 2021,
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — From the moment Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people on the streets of Kenosha during protests over the police shooting of a Black man, he’s personified America’s polarization.
The 17-year-old from Illinois who carried an AR-style rifle and idolized police was cheered by those who despised the Black Lives Matter movement and the sometimes destructive protests that followed George Floyd’s death. He was championed by pro-gun conservatives who said he was exercising his Second Amendment rights and defending cities from “antifa,” an umbrella term for leftist militants.
Others saw him as the most worrisome example yet of vigilante citizens taking to the streets with guns, often with the tacit support of police — a “chaos tourist,” in the words of the lead prosecutor, who came to Kenosha looking for trouble.
Though Rittenhouse and all three men he shot are white, many people saw racism at the heart of Kenosha — an armed white teen, welcomed by police to a city where activists were rallying against a white officer’s shooting of a Black man, and allowed to walk past a police line immediately after shooting three people.
That division is likely to be on display at Rittenhouse's trial, which opens Monday with jury selection. Rittenhouse, now 18, faces several charges, including homicide — and could see a life sentence if convicted.
“It’s another battle in what has become the central story of our time —- the culture wars,” John Baick, who teaches modern American history at Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts, said.
In many ways, the key question at trial is simple: Was Rittenhouse acting in self-defense? Plentiful video exists of the events in question, and legal experts see a strong case for that. The judge overseeing the trial, Bruce Schroeder, has said forcefully that it "is not going to be a political trial.”
But the case has been exactly that, almost from the moment the shootings happened — driven by powerful interest groups, extremists, politicians and others using it to push their own agendas.
Rittenhouse’s defenders, including his family, have leaned into some of the symbolism. A website devoted to his defense — and raising money for it — greets visitors with a quote attributed to James Monroe: “The right of self-defense never ceases.” The site blasts “Big Tech, a corrupt media, and dishonest politicians” out to “ruin the life of Kyle Rittenhouse.” The site briefly sold branded “Free Kyle” merchandise before vendors backed away.
Ryan Busse, a former firearms industry executive who is now a senior adviser at the gun-safety organization Giffords, which was founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, said he's worried that Rittenhouse will become “some heroic martyr.”
“I’m worried about empowering more actors like him who think it’s glamorous to go kill somebody with a rifle,” Busse said.
Rittenhouse made the 20-mile (32-kilometer) trip from his home in Antioch, Illinois, north to Kenosha as the city was in the throes of several nights of chaotic demonstrations after an officer shot Jacob Blake in the back following a domestic disturbance. At least one call had gone out on social media for armed citizens to respond, though Rittenhouse's attorneys say that wasn't what brought Rittenhouse to the city.
Videos taken that night show him with a first-aid kit at his side, along with his rifle, bragging about his medical abilities. Video also shows police appearing to welcome Rittenhouse and other armed citizens, including handing them bottles of water.
Later in the evening, video shows a man named Joseph Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse in the parking lot of a used car dealership; seconds later, Rittenhouse shoots and kills him. In the ensuing minutes, Rittenhouse — pursued by other protesters — shot and killed Anthony Huber, who swung a skateboard at him, and shot and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, who had stepped toward Rittenhouse with a pistol in hand.
Video then shows Rittenhouse walking toward police with his hands up, his rifle slung over his shoulder, as protesters yell that he has just shot people. Rittenhouse went back home, turning himself into police the next day.
The day Rittenhouse was arrested, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, tweeted that the shootings had been committed by a “white supremacist domestic terrorist.”
Rittenhouse's defense team pushed back against that, saying Rittenhouse isn't a white supremacist and wasn't aware of “hateful rhetoric” on social media about the Kenosha protests leading up to the shootings. The Anti-Defamation League found no evidence of extremism in his social media accounts.
But Rittenhouse was embraced by the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group that generally traffics in white nationalism, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group’s chairman, Enrique Tarrio, and other members have been shown wearing T-shirts that say, “Kyle Rittenhouse Did Nothing Wrong!” And soon after being freed on bond, Rittenhouse was photographed at a Wisconsin bar with people who flashed a hand signal associated with the Proud Boys and sang a song that has become an anthem of the group. Rittenhouse flashed the hand signal, too.
The fact that Rittenhouse wasn’t a member of any extremist group before the shootings doesn’t matter now given how he’s been embraced by them, said Alex Friedfeld, an investigative researcher for the Center on Extremism with the Anti-Defamation League.
He said extremists will be looking to turn the trial to advantage. Some view the mere fact that Rittenhouse was charged as evidence that courts and the system are stacked against conservatives, or that the system is biased against white people, Friedfeld said.
“It starts to kind of lay the groundwork for the idea that people need to tear down these institutions and the system is broken and needs to be changed, which requires action,” he said.
Baick, the historian, called the Rittenhouse trial “a moment for reality TV" and said the entire case takes its place amid one of the nation's most turbulent periods in generations.
“We have to link in Jan. 6,” he said. “We have to link in military groups across the country, anti-mask protests, school board protests. Whether it's Kenosha, or Minneapolis, or the entire state of Florida, these debates over the role of government, the role of law and order — these are deeply unsettled in America right now in a way they haven't been since the 1960s.”
___
Associated Press writer Doug Glass contributed from Minneapolis.
___
Find AP’s full coverage on the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse at: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2020, file photo, Kyle Rittenhouse carries a weapon as he walks along Sheridan Road in Kenosha, Wis., during a night of unrest following the weekend police shooting of Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse is white. So were the three men he shot during street protests in Kenosha in 2020. But for many people, Rittenhouse's trial will be watched closely as the latest referendum on race and the American judicial system. (Adam Rogan/The Journal Times via AP, File)
This undated photo shows Anthony Huber, right, and Hannah Gittings. Huber was fatally shot, Aug. 25, 2020, along with Joseph Rosenbaum by Kyle Rittenhouse during a protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer on Aug. 23. Rittenhouse was 17-years-old when he traveled from his home in Illinois, just across the Wisconsin border, during protests that broke out. Jury selection in the Rittenhouse trial was due to start Monday, Nov. 1, 2021. (Hannah Gittings via AP).
Kenosha Protest Shooting RaceFILE - In this Aug. 25, 2020 file photo, a group holds rifles as they watch protesters on the street in Kenosha, Wis. Protests continued following the police shooting of Jacob Blake two days earlier. Kyle Rittenhouse is white. So were the three men he shot during street protests in Kenosha in 2020. But for many people, Rittenhouse's trial will be watched closely as the latest referendum on race and the American judicial system.
AP Photo/Morry Gash
Kyle Rittenhouse will stand trial Monday for shooting three men, killing two of them, on Aug. 25, 2020, during the third night of protests in Kenosha following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Judge Won’t Let Prosecutors Say Kyle Rittenhouse Killed ‘Victims,’ Will Allow Defense to Call Them ‘Looters’ and ‘Arsonists’ if Warranted
Aaron Keller 4 days ago
Aaron Keller 4 days ago
© Provided by Law & Crime Kyle Rittenhouse appears in court for a pre-trial hearing on Oct. 25, 2021. (Image via screengrab from WITI-TV/YouTube.)
Keeping with a longstanding practice employed across “thousands” of cases tried before him, a Wisconsin judge has indicated that attorneys will not be allowed to refer to any of the three individuals shot by Kyle Rittenhouse as “victims.” However, Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder ruled on Monday that those individuals could be referred to as having been involved with “arson, rioting, or looting” if the facts proved those latter accusations true.
“This is a long-held opinion of mine, which very few judges, I guess, share with me,” said the judge with reference to his disdain for the particular moniker. “The word ‘victim’ is a loaded, loaded word, and I think ‘alleged victim’ is a cousin to it.”
The judge said referring to the “decedent” or something similar was more “appropriate” because it neither implied the defendant’s guilt nor implied the innocence of those killed.
Assistant Kenosha County District Attorney Thomas Binger agreed with the judge that he has personally been admonished “in the thousands” of times for using the term “victim” in Schroder’s court, but Binger argued unsuccessfully that the defense should be similarly handicapped from using inflammatory terms to refer to the individuals killed or injured by Rittenhouse.
Schroeder said he would “encourage restraint in opening statements” but said he would “let the evidence show” what it shows as to the decedents.
Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, on Aug. 25, 2020. He injured Gaige Grosskreutz, 26. The killings occurred during protests surrounding the shooting of Jacob Blake by police officer Rusten Sheskey.
“I don’t think I’m inclined at all toward prior restraint,” Schroeder said. “I would encourage restraint in opening statement, but let the evidence show what the evidence shows. And if the evidence shows that any (or more than one) of these people were engaged in arson, rioting, or looting, then I’m not going to tell the defense they can’t call them that.”
The judge said he was accustomed to attorneys using various adjectives to “beatify” and “demonize” various individuals. He recalled one case where a prosecutor refused to a defendant as a “worthless excuse for a human being,” which he said was clearly “out of line.” But the judge said he had no issue with attorneys using words “a person has earned by his behavior.”
Binger said the terms “rioters, looters, and arsonists are as loaded if not more loaded than the term victim.”
“It’s a double standard,” Binger said, but the judge disagreed.
“Their behavior that night has nothing to do with this case unless it was witnessed by the defendant,” Binger continued. “This is going to be a case about self defense, so we’re going to talk about the defendant’s state of mind . . . his state of mind is the most important thing in this case. If there are things he witnessed with his own eyes by Mr. Huber, Mr. Rosenbaum, and Mr. Grosskreutz, I have no problem with that because it does go to his state of mind.”
Prosecutors conceded at the Monday hearing that Rosenbaum had been recorded saying “inflammatory things to other people” before he was killed, but Binger said Rittenhouse appears to have known nothing about those statements. Therefore, Binger said those statements should not come into evidence during the trial. Generally, evidence to suggest Rosenbaum acted in conformity with having a bad character would be inadmissible, Binger argued.
Judge Schroeder suggested Binger could say “Kyle Rittenhouse is a cold blooded killer” during closing arguments, and Binger agreed that he should be able to do so if he pleased.
A significant portion of the two-and-a-half hour hearing was spent hashing out other evidentiary issues.
Among them were evidentiary battles over whether an officer who interacted with Rittenhouse regarding an unrelated incident before the deadly shootings would be able to testify at trial. Prosecutors said the officer described her conversations with the defendant as “brief but cordial interactions” but sought a protective order against the officer’s testimony out of fear that it would come across as if the authorities had “approved” Rittenhouse’s actions as a lawful activity. Though prosecutors said Rittenhouse’s group engaged in some minimal conversations with a business owner about protective duties, Rittenhouse was not a professional security guard. Rather, they argued that Rittenhouse was “wandering on his own” and engaged in conduct “well beyond his purview.” The defense said the officer’s observations of Rittenhouse’s behavior were relevant to the question of whether the defendant was “reckless” — and that term carries significant weight under the relevant Wisconsin law by which Rittenhouse will be judged. The judge said he was inclined to allow the defense to question the officer but suggested a preference for ruling on the fly about any particular types of questions as the testimony develops at trial. The defense made clear that it did not wish to question the officer about the underlying incident which led to the contact between Rittenhouse and the officer in the first place.
The parties also battled about whether a use-of-force expert would be allowed to testify about video of the deadly shooting. Prosecutors said the expert proffered by the defense was biased because he issued a report filled with speculation about the intent of various people portrayed in a video of the shootings and of their aftermath. The state also said the proffered reason for the expert’s testimony — to walk the jury through the video — could be accomplished by other means. They said the jury was “well equipped” to assess the matter using a stopwatch or slow-motion video and that no expert was necessary. The defense countered that the jury needed to be keyed in on one section of video that lasted only one second and another that lasted seven seconds.
“It’s our position,” a defense attorney said, that the situation required “self-defense.”
“I’m going to turn myself into the police — I had to,” Rittenhouse said when asked if he shot someone shortly after pulling the trigger.
Jury selection in the case begins Monday.
Watch the proceeding below; it is queued to the discussion about the word “victim.”
Keeping with a longstanding practice employed across “thousands” of cases tried before him, a Wisconsin judge has indicated that attorneys will not be allowed to refer to any of the three individuals shot by Kyle Rittenhouse as “victims.” However, Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder ruled on Monday that those individuals could be referred to as having been involved with “arson, rioting, or looting” if the facts proved those latter accusations true.
“This is a long-held opinion of mine, which very few judges, I guess, share with me,” said the judge with reference to his disdain for the particular moniker. “The word ‘victim’ is a loaded, loaded word, and I think ‘alleged victim’ is a cousin to it.”
The judge said referring to the “decedent” or something similar was more “appropriate” because it neither implied the defendant’s guilt nor implied the innocence of those killed.
Assistant Kenosha County District Attorney Thomas Binger agreed with the judge that he has personally been admonished “in the thousands” of times for using the term “victim” in Schroder’s court, but Binger argued unsuccessfully that the defense should be similarly handicapped from using inflammatory terms to refer to the individuals killed or injured by Rittenhouse.
Schroeder said he would “encourage restraint in opening statements” but said he would “let the evidence show” what it shows as to the decedents.
Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, on Aug. 25, 2020. He injured Gaige Grosskreutz, 26. The killings occurred during protests surrounding the shooting of Jacob Blake by police officer Rusten Sheskey.
“I don’t think I’m inclined at all toward prior restraint,” Schroeder said. “I would encourage restraint in opening statement, but let the evidence show what the evidence shows. And if the evidence shows that any (or more than one) of these people were engaged in arson, rioting, or looting, then I’m not going to tell the defense they can’t call them that.”
The judge said he was accustomed to attorneys using various adjectives to “beatify” and “demonize” various individuals. He recalled one case where a prosecutor refused to a defendant as a “worthless excuse for a human being,” which he said was clearly “out of line.” But the judge said he had no issue with attorneys using words “a person has earned by his behavior.”
Binger said the terms “rioters, looters, and arsonists are as loaded if not more loaded than the term victim.”
“It’s a double standard,” Binger said, but the judge disagreed.
“Their behavior that night has nothing to do with this case unless it was witnessed by the defendant,” Binger continued. “This is going to be a case about self defense, so we’re going to talk about the defendant’s state of mind . . . his state of mind is the most important thing in this case. If there are things he witnessed with his own eyes by Mr. Huber, Mr. Rosenbaum, and Mr. Grosskreutz, I have no problem with that because it does go to his state of mind.”
Prosecutors conceded at the Monday hearing that Rosenbaum had been recorded saying “inflammatory things to other people” before he was killed, but Binger said Rittenhouse appears to have known nothing about those statements. Therefore, Binger said those statements should not come into evidence during the trial. Generally, evidence to suggest Rosenbaum acted in conformity with having a bad character would be inadmissible, Binger argued.
Judge Schroeder suggested Binger could say “Kyle Rittenhouse is a cold blooded killer” during closing arguments, and Binger agreed that he should be able to do so if he pleased.
A significant portion of the two-and-a-half hour hearing was spent hashing out other evidentiary issues.
Among them were evidentiary battles over whether an officer who interacted with Rittenhouse regarding an unrelated incident before the deadly shootings would be able to testify at trial. Prosecutors said the officer described her conversations with the defendant as “brief but cordial interactions” but sought a protective order against the officer’s testimony out of fear that it would come across as if the authorities had “approved” Rittenhouse’s actions as a lawful activity. Though prosecutors said Rittenhouse’s group engaged in some minimal conversations with a business owner about protective duties, Rittenhouse was not a professional security guard. Rather, they argued that Rittenhouse was “wandering on his own” and engaged in conduct “well beyond his purview.” The defense said the officer’s observations of Rittenhouse’s behavior were relevant to the question of whether the defendant was “reckless” — and that term carries significant weight under the relevant Wisconsin law by which Rittenhouse will be judged. The judge said he was inclined to allow the defense to question the officer but suggested a preference for ruling on the fly about any particular types of questions as the testimony develops at trial. The defense made clear that it did not wish to question the officer about the underlying incident which led to the contact between Rittenhouse and the officer in the first place.
The parties also battled about whether a use-of-force expert would be allowed to testify about video of the deadly shooting. Prosecutors said the expert proffered by the defense was biased because he issued a report filled with speculation about the intent of various people portrayed in a video of the shootings and of their aftermath. The state also said the proffered reason for the expert’s testimony — to walk the jury through the video — could be accomplished by other means. They said the jury was “well equipped” to assess the matter using a stopwatch or slow-motion video and that no expert was necessary. The defense countered that the jury needed to be keyed in on one section of video that lasted only one second and another that lasted seven seconds.
“It’s our position,” a defense attorney said, that the situation required “self-defense.”
“I’m going to turn myself into the police — I had to,” Rittenhouse said when asked if he shot someone shortly after pulling the trigger.
Jury selection in the case begins Monday.
Watch the proceeding below; it is queued to the discussion about the word “victim.”
Stacy St. Clair, Chicago Tribune
Sat, October 30, 2021
KENOSHA, Wis. — In the weeks leading up to Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial, attorneys on both sides made clear they wanted prospective jurors to fill out questionnaires before the selection process began.
It was a fairly routine request, given judges and attorneys across the country have relied upon such forms for decades in high-profile trials to identify people with potential biases and conflicts of interest.
But Kenosha Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder wouldn’t hear of it.
“I maybe have tried more murder cases than anyone in the state and I’ve never used a jury questionnaire that I can recall,” he told the lawyers. “And if I did, it was a moment of weakness.”
And so it goes in Schroeder’s courtroom, where Wisconsin’s longest-serving circuit judge presides over cases with hard-line positions and chatty asides.
Schroeder, 75, will step into the national spotlight Monday as jury selection begins in Rittenhouse’s murder trial.
Rittenhouse, who lived in far north suburban Chicago, was 17 when he fatally shot two people and injured a third in downtown Kenosha with an AR-15-style rifle that police say a friend illegally purchased for him. Despite not being old enough to openly carry a gun, Rittenhouse took it upon himself to patrol the southeast Wisconsin town amid the turmoil surrounding the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer in August 2020.
The case, which laid bare the country’s deep political divide over gun rights and racial inequities, will be undoubtedly the biggest in Schroeder’s career, but he is not new to the public stage or controversy. A circuit judge since 1983, he has made headlines for decades as he pushed for more flexibility on state-mandated child support rules, imposed a sentence intended to shame a defendant and became among the first judges in the United States to require sex workers to take AIDS tests.
At one point, so many Kenosha defendants petitioned to have their cases moved from Schroeder’s courtroom, it caused a workload imbalance at the courthouse. Between August and November 2006, as many as 250 defendants used their one-time option to switch judges rather than face Schroeder, according to The Associated Press.
The judge called the situation “almost irrational,” while many in the local legal community believed it reflected Schroeder’s reputation for handing out tough punishments. Though well-known for giving defendants leeway to present their defense, he is not considered as merciful once there’s a conviction.
“Some would view him as a stiff sentencer, and I think that was behind a lot of the switching,” said veteran defense attorney Terry Rose, who does not opt out of Schroeder’s courtroom unless a client insists. “But you will be able to get a fair trial and be able to put on your defense. That’s what I care about.”
Schroeder’s immoderate punishments raised eyebrows in 2018, when he required, as a condition of a woman’s shoplifting sentence, that she inform the management of any store she entered that she was on supervision for the offense. The judge acknowledged the unusual sentence was meant to humiliate the woman, stating that although society no longer places defendants in the stockade for their crimes, “embarrassment does have a valuable place in deterring criminality.”
A Wisconsin Court of Appeals disagreed earlier this year and overturned part of the sentence. In upholding Schroeder’s order banning the woman from the outlet mall where the shoplifting occurred, the court found the additional restrictions could make it difficult for the woman to buy groceries or other necessities if store managers in other locations refused her entry because of her confession.
“We are not persuaded that embarrassing or humiliating defendants with a state-imposed broad notification program promotes their rehabilitation,” the decision stated.
All judges — especially those who have been on the bench since the Reagan administration — are overturned at some point in their careers, and Schroeder acknowledges his reversals openly. He has mentioned a few during Rittenhouse’s pretrial hearings, including one case in which an evidentiary mistake led the Wisconsin Supreme Court to order a new trial for a man convicted of killing his wife and given a life sentence in 2008.
But neither the threat of reversals nor the increased scrutiny surrounding the Rittenhouse trial will influence how he approaches the case, several local attorneys told the Tribune.
“It won’t faze him at all,” longtime Kenosha defense attorney Michael Cicchini said. “One thing that he is, is confident. You may have picked up on that.”
A die-hard Milwaukee Brewers fan with a deep affinity for Kenosha history, Schroeder has been a mainstay at the city’s stately courthouse for a half-century. He joined the district attorney’s office in 1971 after graduating from Marquette University Law School and became the county’s top prosecutor just one year later.
He often reminisces about his time as a prosecutor while on the bench, offering the occasionally meandering anecdote to explain a ruling. At a recent Rittenhouse hearing, for example, he said he would allow an expert witness to testify about the shooting timeline because bystanders traditionally have unreliable memories about time and distances.
“I had a deputy sheriff one time testify that the width of a standard-sized automobile was 4 feet and you could not shake him from that,” Schroeder said. “He could not be shook and the case was lost — and I know because I was the prosecutor.”
Then-Gov. Anthony Earl, a Democrat, appointed Schroeder to the bench in 1983, and he has won every election for the nonpartisan job since that time. He was reelected without any opposition in 2020, and his current term ends in 2026.
In the months leading up to the Rittenhouse trial, Schroeder has made a series of off-the-cuff statements that have raised eyebrows among observers. The most recent came Monday, when he reiterated that prosecutors may not refer to the men Rittenhouse shot as “victims.” The defense, however, will be allowed to call them “rioters, looters and arsonists” if they present evidence supporting the claim.
Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber both died after Rittenhouse shot them, while a third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, was injured.
“He can demonize them if he wants, if he thinks it will win points with the jury,” Schroeder said.
It’s not uncommon for judges to bar the word “victims” in self-defense cases where there is a dispute over who bears responsibility. Prosecutors acknowledge it’s a long-standing rule in Schroeder’s courtroom and not unique to Rittenhouse’s trial, but the edict drew sharp criticism from social justice advocates who repeatedly have accused the judge of favoring Rittenhouse.
“This case continues to be a show of white privilege,” said Justin Blake, the uncle of Jacob Blake. “This is eroding confidence in the justice system and making a mockery of our constitution.”
Local attorneys say the decision reflects Schroeder’s penchant for giving defendants wide latitude to tell jurors their side of the story. Several told the Tribune that the judge would have ruled the same way if the accused wasn’t Rittenhouse.
“This is a man who has given the defense a chance to present their case as long as I’ve been in his courtroom,” Cicchini said. “He’s very consistent in that way, and that’s a good thing for all defendants regardless of their skin color.”
Protesters called for Schroeder’s resignation this summer when he refused to revoke Rittenhouse’s bond after pictures showed him allegedly socializing with a far-right group and flashing a hand sign appropriated by some white supremacists.
Prosecutors acknowledge they cannot prove Rittenhouse’s connection to fringe groups before the shooting, but they say they have evidence Rittenhouse met for lunch after a court hearing earlier this year with several high-ranking members of the Proud Boys organization, a far-right group known for street fights that the Anti-Defamation League characterizes as “misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration,” with some members espousing “white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideologies.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center labels the organization a general hate group.
Upon arrival at a bar in nearby Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, Rittenhouse posed with two men while flashing the “OK” sign, which prosecutors described as “co-opted as a symbol of white supremacy/white power.” He took several other photos while drinking three beers over 90 minutes, prosecutors said.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys repeatedly have denied he is a member of the organization. Prosecutors said they would present evidence showing the teen flew to Florida shortly after the bar gathering and was picked up at the airport by the Proud Boys’ national leader.
Schroeder also barred prosecutors from mentioning the alleged connection during the trial, saying it could unfairly prejudice the jury. In doing so, however, he acknowledged he had never heard of the Proud Boys before the case, didn’t know if they were actually a hate-inspired group and suggested many organizations, including street gangs, force people to join against their will.
“Pope Benedict was a member of the Nazi Youth because he had to be,” the judge said.
Schroeder also said there could be non-nefarious reasons for the photographs, which show Rittenhouse wearing a “Free as (expletive)” slogan on his shirt. The bar meeting could have been a coincidence, and Rittenhouse may have been merely happy to take pictures with people who supported him.
The judge downplayed the defendant flashing the “OK” sign in the photo, too, saying he had never heard of it used in a negative way. The symbol’s relevance among white supremacy groups has been well-documented by the media in recent years and it was declared a symbol of hate by the ADL in 2019.
“I don’t know about it and I sit in criminal court all day long and I hear a lot of criminally charged court cases, believe me, and I never heard about this hand gesture,” Schroeder said. “The first time I saw it, or a version of it, was Chef Boyardee on a can of spaghetti.”
Schroeder’s comments stirred anger among some, prompting plans for a protest outside the courthouse before jury selection begins Monday. Justin Blake intends to be among the people demonstrating.
“These rulings are not OK,” Blake said. “And we want everyone to know that.”
About 150 people are expected to report for jury duty Monday in Kenosha. Schroeder has said he’s confident the panel can be picked by day’s end.
Ahead of Rittenhouse trial, race seen as underlying issue
In this Sept. 3, 2020 file photo, Justin Blake, uncle of Jacob Blake, protests outside the Grace Lutheran Church where Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden held an event in Kenosha, Wis. Kyle Rittenhouse is white. So were the three men he shot during street protests in Kenosha in 2020. But for many people, Rittenhouse's trial will be watched closely as the latest referendum on race and the American judicial system. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
AARON MORRISON
Fri, October 29, 2021,
Kyle Rittenhouse, the aspiring police officer who gunned down three people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a protest against racism and police brutality, is white. So were those he shot. But for many, his trial next week will be watched closely as the latest referendum on race and the American legal system.
“Make the connection,” said Justin Blake, a Black man whose nephew Jacob was a key part of the backstory of the case. "This is clearly Black and white.”
Rittenhouse was 17 when he used an AR-style semiautomatic rifle to kill two people and wound a third during the summer of 2020. He had gone to Kenosha, he said, to protect property from protesters who took to the streets in anger days after Jacob Blake was shot in the back by a white Kenosha officer.
Rittenhouse faces the equivalent of murder and attempted murder charges and could get life in prison. He has said he fired in self-defense after being attacked by protesters.
After the shooting, he drew sizable support from opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement and supporters of gun rights. Pro-gun conservatives helped raise $2 million for his bail and legal defense. After he got out of jail, he was photographed with apparent members of the far-right Proud Boys.
If Rittenhouse gets off, that would send an ominous message to Black America, Justin Blake said.
“If our country shows that you can shoot Caucasians who support us, then this country can never stand up in any international or global hearing and talk about human rights,” the uncle said. He said if Rittenhouse goes free, white people will be able to “ride down every African American community and just have fun, like you’re going hunting or something.”
Rittenhouse's lawyers have said he is not a white supremacist, and his defense fund has said he was not part of a militia group.
Some activists also see a racial double standard in the way the Blake and Rittenhouse cases were handled.
Blake was shot seven times and paralyzed at the door of his SUV as his children sat in the back seat. Police say Rusten Sheskey and two other officers responding to a domestic disturbance had tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant and, during a scuffle, a pocketknife fell from Blake’s pants.
Blake has said he picked the knife up and was prepared to surrender once he put it in the vehicle.
After he was rushed to a hospital, police briefly handcuffed him to his bed. State prosecutors declined to charge the officer, saying the knife justified Sheskey's claim of self-defense. Federal prosecutors also declined to file charges.
Rittenhouse experienced a seemingly different response from law enforcement.
He and others were armed and professed to be there protecting the city’s businesses and homes after protesters set fires and vandalized property on two previous nights of unrest in Kenosha, and after weeks of sometimes-violent demonstrations around the U.S. over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Law enforcement officers saw Rittenhouse and other armed people on the streets that night despite a citywide curfew and passed them bottles of water. One officer was heard over a loudspeaker saying, “We appreciate you guys.”
Later that night, Rittenhouse was chased through a used car lot by Joseph Rosenbaum, a participant in the protests, before he fatally shot the man. Rittenhouse was then seen running onto a street with protesters after him.
A man named Anthony Huber struck Rittenhouse with a skateboard, and the teenager shot and killed him. Seconds later, Gaige Grosskreutz stepped toward Rittenhouse with a pistol, and Rittenhouse shot him in the arm.
Even as people on the street tried to flag Rittenhouse to police officers as the person responsible for the shootings, he was not stopped. With his weapon slung over his shoulder, he put his hands in the air and was waved past a police line.
Hours later, he turned himself in to police in his hometown of Antioch, Illinois.
“What looms above this trial is this whole notion that we have two justice systems, one for Black America and another for white America,” said Blake family attorney Ben Crump, the civil rights lawyer who has also represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery, both killed in what prosecutors portrayed as acts of vigilantism.
“I just think that right now in America, there is this notion that certain people have the right to solve every disagreement with a gun,” Crump said. “And especially, when we see people protesting for justice for the killing of Black people, that we don’t have to respect their rights to the First Amendment.”
A week before trial, the judge in Rittenhouse's case ruled that prosecutors and the defense cannot refer to the men killed as “victims,” but can call them “rioters” or “looters” if the evidence supports that. The ruling outraged Black activists, who pointed to it as another racial double standard in the judicial system.
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, co-executive director of the Highlander Research and Education Center and a leader of the Movement for Black Lives, said Rittenhouse left home with the intention of dispensing “vigilante justice, for the sake of so-called protecting buildings and businesses, at the expense of human life.”
“To not call the people that are directly impacted by that ‘victims’ is nothing but the tenets of white supremacy masked in unjust laws,” Henderson said.
___
Video journalist Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee, Wisconsin contributed. Morrison, who reported from New York City, is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison
___
Find AP’s full coverage on the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse at: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
Fri, October 29, 2021,
Kyle Rittenhouse, the aspiring police officer who gunned down three people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a protest against racism and police brutality, is white. So were those he shot. But for many, his trial next week will be watched closely as the latest referendum on race and the American legal system.
“Make the connection,” said Justin Blake, a Black man whose nephew Jacob was a key part of the backstory of the case. "This is clearly Black and white.”
Rittenhouse was 17 when he used an AR-style semiautomatic rifle to kill two people and wound a third during the summer of 2020. He had gone to Kenosha, he said, to protect property from protesters who took to the streets in anger days after Jacob Blake was shot in the back by a white Kenosha officer.
Rittenhouse faces the equivalent of murder and attempted murder charges and could get life in prison. He has said he fired in self-defense after being attacked by protesters.
After the shooting, he drew sizable support from opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement and supporters of gun rights. Pro-gun conservatives helped raise $2 million for his bail and legal defense. After he got out of jail, he was photographed with apparent members of the far-right Proud Boys.
If Rittenhouse gets off, that would send an ominous message to Black America, Justin Blake said.
“If our country shows that you can shoot Caucasians who support us, then this country can never stand up in any international or global hearing and talk about human rights,” the uncle said. He said if Rittenhouse goes free, white people will be able to “ride down every African American community and just have fun, like you’re going hunting or something.”
Rittenhouse's lawyers have said he is not a white supremacist, and his defense fund has said he was not part of a militia group.
Some activists also see a racial double standard in the way the Blake and Rittenhouse cases were handled.
Blake was shot seven times and paralyzed at the door of his SUV as his children sat in the back seat. Police say Rusten Sheskey and two other officers responding to a domestic disturbance had tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant and, during a scuffle, a pocketknife fell from Blake’s pants.
Blake has said he picked the knife up and was prepared to surrender once he put it in the vehicle.
After he was rushed to a hospital, police briefly handcuffed him to his bed. State prosecutors declined to charge the officer, saying the knife justified Sheskey's claim of self-defense. Federal prosecutors also declined to file charges.
Rittenhouse experienced a seemingly different response from law enforcement.
He and others were armed and professed to be there protecting the city’s businesses and homes after protesters set fires and vandalized property on two previous nights of unrest in Kenosha, and after weeks of sometimes-violent demonstrations around the U.S. over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Law enforcement officers saw Rittenhouse and other armed people on the streets that night despite a citywide curfew and passed them bottles of water. One officer was heard over a loudspeaker saying, “We appreciate you guys.”
Later that night, Rittenhouse was chased through a used car lot by Joseph Rosenbaum, a participant in the protests, before he fatally shot the man. Rittenhouse was then seen running onto a street with protesters after him.
A man named Anthony Huber struck Rittenhouse with a skateboard, and the teenager shot and killed him. Seconds later, Gaige Grosskreutz stepped toward Rittenhouse with a pistol, and Rittenhouse shot him in the arm.
Even as people on the street tried to flag Rittenhouse to police officers as the person responsible for the shootings, he was not stopped. With his weapon slung over his shoulder, he put his hands in the air and was waved past a police line.
Hours later, he turned himself in to police in his hometown of Antioch, Illinois.
“What looms above this trial is this whole notion that we have two justice systems, one for Black America and another for white America,” said Blake family attorney Ben Crump, the civil rights lawyer who has also represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery, both killed in what prosecutors portrayed as acts of vigilantism.
“I just think that right now in America, there is this notion that certain people have the right to solve every disagreement with a gun,” Crump said. “And especially, when we see people protesting for justice for the killing of Black people, that we don’t have to respect their rights to the First Amendment.”
A week before trial, the judge in Rittenhouse's case ruled that prosecutors and the defense cannot refer to the men killed as “victims,” but can call them “rioters” or “looters” if the evidence supports that. The ruling outraged Black activists, who pointed to it as another racial double standard in the judicial system.
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, co-executive director of the Highlander Research and Education Center and a leader of the Movement for Black Lives, said Rittenhouse left home with the intention of dispensing “vigilante justice, for the sake of so-called protecting buildings and businesses, at the expense of human life.”
“To not call the people that are directly impacted by that ‘victims’ is nothing but the tenets of white supremacy masked in unjust laws,” Henderson said.
___
Video journalist Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee, Wisconsin contributed. Morrison, who reported from New York City, is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison
___
Find AP’s full coverage on the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse at: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
In this Sept. 3, 2020 file photo, Justin Blake, uncle of Jacob Blake, protests outside the Grace Lutheran Church where Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden held an event in Kenosha, Wis. Kyle Rittenhouse is white. So were the three men he shot during street protests in Kenosha in 2020. But for many people, Rittenhouse's trial will be watched closely as the latest referendum on race and the American judicial system. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
