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MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) – A judge on Thursday turned down prosecutors’ request to issue a new arrest warrant for an 18-year-old from Illinois who is accused of killing two people during a protest against police brutality in Wisconsin last summer.
Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder also denied prosecutors’ request to increase bail by $ 200,000 for Kyle Rittenhouse, who came to Kenosha in August as hundreds protested against Jacob’s shooting Blake, a black man.
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said in court documents prosecutors realized Rittenhouse no longer lived in his apartment in Antioch, Ill., When a court notice was returned as undeliverable. Kenosha’s detectives visited the apartment on February 2 and found someone else there. This man said he has been renting the place since mid-December.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys argued that the threats forced Rittenhouse into hiding. He moved into an undisclosed “safe house” after conservative groups posted his initial $ 2 million bond in November. His lawyers say they offered to reveal his current address to prosecutors, but only if they agreed to keep it sealed.
“It is of concern to the defense that any information regarding Kyle’s whereabouts being available to the public would result in immediate harm to the Rittenhouse family,” Mark Richards, one of Rittenhouse’s attorneys, wrote in a filing.
Binger declined to make a deal, saying the address of a murder accused was on public record.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys provided Schroeder with Rittenhouse’s current address in a February 3 filing along with a request for secrecy. Binger said the address was just a PO box.
“This is totally unacceptable,” Binger wrote in a response brief.
Kenosha was engulfed in violent protests that lasted several nights in August after a white policeman shot Blake, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Prosecutors say Rittenhouse, who is white and was 17 at the time, responded to a group’s call on social media to protect Kenosha’s businesses. During a demonstration on the night of August 25, Rittenhouse reportedly opened fire with an AR-15 type rifle on Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz, killing Rosenbaum and Huber and injuring Grosskreutz. Prosecutors have charged Rittenhouse with several counts, including manslaughter.
Rittenhouse claimed he fired in self-defense after Rosenbaum, Huber and Grosskreutz attacked him. Proponents of the Black Lives Matter movement have portrayed Rittenhouse as a trigger happy white supremacist. Tories upset by the destruction of their property in recent protests have portrayed him as a patriot exercising his right to bear arms.
In January, Rittenhouse was seen drinking at a Mount Pleasant bar and posing with two men as they gestured with white supremacists. Five men also serenaded him with the anthem of the neo-fascist group the Proud Boys.
Rittenhouse could drink alcohol at a bar under Wisconsin law because he was with his mother.
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