CHICAGO — A Wisconsin judge has rejected calls for a higher bond for Kyle Rittenhouse, rebuffing prosecutors who accused the 18-year-old of failing to tell the courts where he’s living as he awaits trial for fatally shooting two men and wounding a third during an August protest in Kenosha.
Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder on Thursday afternoon denied prosecutors’ requests for higher bail and an arrest warrant but ordered Rittenhouse to submit his residential address to court officials, who plan to keep it secret.
The battle over Rittenhouse’s pretrial release kicked off last week when prosecutors sought an arrest warrant for the teen and for $200,000 to be added on top of his $2 million bond, alleging he has failed to tell the courts where he now lives.
Rittenhouse lived in far north suburban Antioch, Illinois, when he shot the three men but has lived at an undisclosed location since his November release ― a move his lawyers attribute to threats on his life. Prosecutors argued Rittenhouse violated the terms of his release by listing the Antioch address on his bond paperwork and not updating the courts on his new home.
Prosecutors wrote that the public has a right to know where Rittenhouse lives while he awaits trial and that he “apparently believes the rules do not apply to him.” It is unclear what spurred prosecutors to act last week, as they’ve known for months he had left Antioch.
The prosecutors’ filings highlighted the controversy that erupted last month after Rittenhouse went to a southern Wisconsin bar immediately after his online arraignment hearing in a T-shirt reading “Free as (expletive)” and flashed hand signs appropriated by white supremacist groups. A group of men also serenaded Rittenhouse with a song purportedly appropriated by the Proud Boys, an extremist group. In response, a judge barred Rittenhouse from associating with known white supremacists. The teen’s lawyers have said he has no ties to extremist groups.
The episode showed Rittenhouse’s “carefree attitude” in the face of a potential life sentence, prosecutors wrote.
Rittenhouse’s lawyer, Mark Richards, tried to put the dispute over the teen’s residence to rest by filing what he wrote was the current address along with a motion to seal that information. Prosecutors responded, however, by saying that Richards provided a P.O. box, not a residential location.
Richards wrote that a Kenosha police officer told the teen’s former lawyer to list the prior address on the bond paperwork, a claim Kenosha police dispute.
Richards wrote that Rittenhouse has faced death threats since immediately after he fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26. A third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, who prosecutors have said was armed with a handgun, survived the teen shooting him in the arm. Rittenhouse’s lawyers have argued he shot the men in self-defense.
