Prosecutors on Wednesday asked a judge for a new arrest warrant for an Illinois teenager accused of killing two people during a protest over police brutality in Wisconsin after he allegedly violated his bail conditions.
Kyle Rittenhouse did not inform the court of his change of address within 48 hours of moving, according to Kenosha County prosecutors in a motion filed with Judge Bruce Schroeder. The motion calls on Schroeder to issue an arrest warrant and increase Rittenhouse’s bail by $ 200,000.
Prosecutors said in their motion that it is unusual for anyone accused of murder so that he is allowed to roam freely and the court must know where Rittenhouse is at all times. They did not say if they knew where Rittenhouse currently resides, saying only that he has not provided the court with a new address.
“He didn’t make any money, so he has no financial stake in the bond,” they wrote. “He already faces the most serious criminal charges possible and his entire life in prison, so in comparison, possible future criminal sanctions are negligible.”
Rittenhouse’s lawyer, Mark Richards, replied Wednesday for his own reason that death threats have led Rittenhouse to an “undisclosed safe house.” Richards said he offered to give prosecutors the new address in November if they would keep it a secret, but they refused. He said Rittenhouse has been in constant contact with him.
Rittenhouse is charged with several crimes, including homicide, in connection with the August protests in Kenosha. The demonstrations began after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, which is black, on his back during a domestic disorder, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Prosecutors allege that Rittenhouse, then 17, responded to a militia’s call on social media to protect Kenosha’s businesses from protesters. He opened fire with a style rifle against Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskruetz. Rosenbaum and Huber were killed; Grosskruetz was wounded but survived.
Rittenhouse, who is white, fled to his home in Antioch, Illinois, but became a police officer there the next day.
Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department through AP
He has stated that he acted in self-defense after the three men attacked him. Conservatives have rallied around him as a symbol of gun rights and backtracked on anti-police protesters, though others insist he raised tensions by walking around the protest with a gun.
Conservatives raised $ 2 million to cover his bail and he was released from prison in November.
Last month he was seen in Rittenhouse drinking at a bar in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, and taking pictures for two men as they made “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 neo-fascist group The Proud Boys, prosecutors said.
Rittenhouse is now 18, but he is still too young to drink. He could drink alcohol at a bar under Wisconsin law because he was with his mother.
The judge ordered him not to have any contact with white supremacists after that episode.
Prosecutors wrote in their motion Wednesday that they learned that Rittenhouse no longer lived at his Antioch address after the court sent him a notice by email and on Jan. 28 he returned because he could not be handed over. Kenosha detectives traveled to the address on Tuesday and found that another man had rented an apartment and had been living there since mid-December.
Richards, Rittenhouse’s attorney, argued in his motion that Rittenhouse and his family have received threats in various ways, the most recent of which came on January 25th. When Rittenhouse was released from prison in November, police told defense attorneys not to provide the safe house. direction, Richards said.
A lawyer working with Richards, Corey Chirafisi, asked District Assistant Attorney Thomas Binger by email on Nov. 30 if he could keep the address of the safe house sealed, but Binger refused, according to Richards’ motion.
“It is noteworthy that the state has only decided to file a motion to increase bail in this case, despite having corresponded with attorney Chirafisi on the change of Kyle’s residence more than two months ago,” Richards wrote .
Richards stressed that Rittenhouse has made all his court appearances and is in constant contact with him. He provided the address of the safe house to the judge as part of a separate motion requesting that it be sealed.