Prosecutors on Wednesday asked a judge for a new arrest warrant for an Illinois teenager charged with murdering two people during a protest over police brutality in Wisconsin after apparently violating his. bail conditions.
Kyle Rittenhouse did not notify the court of his change of address within 48 hours of the move, Kenosha County prosecutors claimed in a motion filed with Judge Bruce Schroeder. The motion asks Schroeder to issue an arrest warrant and raise Rittenhouse’s bail by $ 200,000.
Prosecutors said in their motion that it is not unusual for anyone murder suspect in order to walk around freely and the court must know where Rittenhouse is at all times. They didn’t say if they knew where Rittenhouse currently resides, just that he hasn’t given the court a new address.
“He didn’t post money, so he has no financial interest in the bond,” they wrote. “He is already facing the most serious criminal charges and life in prison, so in comparison, possible future criminal penalties are insignificant.”
Rittenhouse’s lawyer, Mark Richards, on his own initiative on Wednesday, argued against death threats driving Rittenhouse into an “ undisclosed Safe House. ” Richards said he offered to give prosecutors the new address in November if they wanted to keep it a secret, but they declined. He said Rittenhouse has been in constant contact with him.
Rittenhouse is charged with multiple charges, including murder, in connection with the August protests in Kenosha. The demonstrations started after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is black, in the back during a domestic disturbance, paralyzing him from the waist down.
Prosecutors allege that Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, responded to a social media militia’s call to protect Kenosha companies from protesters. He opened fire with an assault rifle on Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskruetz. Rosenbaum and Huber were killed; Grosskruetz was injured but survived.
Rittenhouse, who is White, fled to his home in Antioch, Illinois, but turned himself into the police force there the next day.
Sheriff’s Department of Kenosha County via AP
He has maintained that he was acting in self-defense after the three men attacked him. Conservatives have rallied around him as a symbol of gun rights and the pushing back of anti-police protesters, though others maintain that he escalated tensions by running a gun around the protest.
Conservatives raised $ 2 million to cover his bail and he was released from prison in November.
Last month, Rittenhouse was seen drinking at a bar in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, posing for photos with two men making “ OK ” signs with their hands, a symbol used by white supremacists, according to prosecutors. Five men at the bar also serenaded Rittenhouse with a song that has become the anthem of the neo-fascist group the Proud Boys, prosecutors have claimed.
Rittenhouse is now 18 but too young to drink. Under Wisconsin law, he could use alcohol in a bar because he was with his mother.
The judge ordered him not to have any more contact with white supremacists after that episode.
Prosecutors wrote in their motion on Wednesday that they learned that Rittenhouse no longer lived at his address in Antioch after the court sent him a notice and the message was returned as undeliverable on Jan. 28. Kenosha detectives traveled to the address on Tuesday and discovered that another man had hired it. apartment and lived there since mid-December.
Richards, Rittenhouse’s attorney, argued in his motion that Rittenhouse and his family have received threats in various forms, the most recent of which came on Jan. 25. When Rittenhouse was released from prison in November, police told defense attorneys not to provide the hiding place. address, Richards said.
A lawyer working with Richards, Corey Chirafisi, asked assistant district attorney Thomas Binger via email on Nov. 30 if he could keep the safehouse address sealed, but Binger declined, according to Richards’s motion.
“It is noteworthy that the state has only now decided to file a motion to increase banding in this case, despite having corresponded with attorney Chirafisi about the change of Kyle’s residence more than two months ago,” wrote. Richards.
Richards emphasized that Rittenhouse made all his court appearances and is in constant contact with him. He provided the hideout address to the judge as part of a separate motion requesting sealing.