Prosecutors can’t call men shot by Kyle Rittenhouse ‘victims,’ but ‘rioters’ OK, judge rules

Many conservatives have flocked to support Kyle Rittenhouse, calling him a "patriot," making him a symbol for gun rights and raising US$2 million for his bail.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge laid out the final ground rules Monday on what evidence will be allowed when Kyle Rittenhouse goes on trial next week for shooting three people during a protest against police brutality, ruling he’ll permit testimony from the defence’s use-of-force expert and on how police welcomed Rittenhouse and others carrying guns during the demonstration.

The hearing was likely the last before Rittenhouse goes on trial Nov. 1 for the shootings during chaotic demonstrations in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, two days after a white police officer in that city shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back while responding to a domestic disturbance.

Rittenhouse, 18, of Antioch, Illinois, was among a number of people who responded to calls on social media to take up arms and come to Kenosha to respond to the protests. Rittenhouse, who is white, is charged with homicide and other crimes in the fatal shootings of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and the wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz, all also white.

Rittenhouse’s lawyers want use-of-force expert John Black to testify that Rittenhouse acted in self-defence. Prosecutors have asked Judge Bruce Schroeder to block Black’s testimony, arguing that jurors don’t need an expert to understand what happened that night.

Schroeder told the lawyers that Black wouldn’t be allowed to testify about what Rittenhouse was thinking when he pulled the trigger or whether he definitively acted in self-defence.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said if Schroeder allowed Black to testify only about the timeline of events that night he wouldn’t call his own expert to the stand. Defence attorney Mark Richards agreed to the deal.

Schroeder denied Binger’s request to bar the defence from referring to Rosenbaum, Huber and Grosskreutz as “rioters,” “looters” or “arsonists.” The judge said those terms would be allowed if the defence can produce evidence showing that’s what they were, but they shouldn’t be called “victims,” he said.

Schroeder has reportedly had a long-held policy of not allowing the word “victim” in his criminal trials until there is a conviction, saying it is “loaded” with prejudgement.