KENOSHA, Wis. (CN) — The judge who presided over the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse approved an agreement Friday between lawyers who represented and prosecuted the teenager to destroy the assault-style rifle he used to kill two people and wound a third at an August 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
During a livestreamed hearing from the Kenosha County Courthouse on Friday, Assistant Kenosha County District Attorney Thomas Binger and Mark Richards, Rittenhouse’s lawyer from Racine, formally agreed to have the Wisconsin state crime lab destroy the AR-15-style rifle Rittenhouse used on Aug. 25, 2020, during riotous protests over the shooting of a Black man by white Kenosha police.
The agreement to destroy the gun, which appeared as evidence during Rittenhouse’s murder trial, was approved by Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder, who drew scrutiny for some of his actions during the trial.
Prosecutors charged Rittenhouse, then 17, with multiple felonies in connection with the protest shootings. Charges included first-degree reckless homicide for killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36; first-degree intentional homicide for killing Anthony Huber, 26; and first-degree attempted homicide for injuring Gaige Grosskreutz, 28.
Rittenhouse’s lawyers successfully argued he acted in self-defense, and he was acquitted of all charges in November after a nearly two-week trial.
Before his acquittal, Schroeder tossed a gun charge Rittenhouse faced for being underage while publicly carrying the M&P Smith & Wesson rifle he used in the shootings, as well as a citation for violating Kenosha’s emergency curfew in place that night.
Counsel for Rittenhouse, now 19, filed a motion on Jan. 19 asking for the return of Rittenhouse’s rifle, ammunition, clothing and other personal property he possessed the night of shootings later seized by law enforcement.
Representatives for Rittenhouse told the Associated Press last week the teen wanted to destroy the gun and dispose of the other items so none of it could be used as a political symbol or trophy celebrating the shootings.
Binger reported in court that the state has already returned the rest of Rittenhouse’s property, which Richards confirmed on Friday. Binger confirmed that the gun would be destroyed by April.
Rittenhouse’s trial sparked intense partisan passions unlike any in Wisconsin history. The teenager became a symbol of Second Amendment firearm freedoms, self-defense and private property rights for some conservatives. Some on the left condemned Rittenhouse as a chaos tourist and wannabe vigilante who made a volatile situation worse by coming armed to a protest in a community where he did not live.
Particularly since his acquittal, Rittenhouse has turned into a minor celebrity for some right-wing politicos and sympathizers. He received a standing ovation amid pyrotechnics and spoke in a panel discussion at a conference held by conservative group Turning Point USA in Phoenix in December, a little more than five weeks after his trial.
Those on the right who flocked to Rittenhouse’s cause raised his $2 million bail by November 2020. This was accomplished partially through fundraising efforts by the right-wing FightBack Foundation, a Texas-based organization formed weeks before Rittenhouse’s release from custody by two of his earliest advocates, prominent Atlanta defamation attorney L. Lin Wood and Los Angeles civil attorney John Pierce.
Wood and Pierce were off Rittenhouse’s legal team long before his trial, but disputes between them and others over who should get the bail money if Rittenhouse should be acquitted predated opening arguments.
Indeed, most of Friday’s court hearing dealt with what should happen with Rittenhouse’s bond funds now that he has been found not guilty.
A motion was filed on Thursday by the Patent and Trademark Hedge Fund Trust laying claim to the bond money, in part because the trust says it has rights to millions Pierce allegedly owes to litigation finance company Karish Kapital for funds the company gave to Pierce for lawsuits he was involved in, including one where he represented Carter Page, a one-time associate of former President Donald Trump.
Richards objected to the trust’s arguments entirely, arguing there were no authenticated documents or other proof giving the groups any right to his client’s bond money.
Schroeder ultimately rejected the trust's motion because, for one thing, the trust’s attorney, Michael Reznick, who runs his namesake firm out of Oak Park, California, is not licensed to practice in Wisconsin.
Ultimately, Schroeder approved an agreement stipulated to by Richards and Xavier Solis, a Kenosha-based attorney for FightBack, laying out a split of most of the bond money between Richards’ firm and FightBack. Some of the funds for Richards' firm, the attorney said, will go to the Rittenhouses.
Under the stipulation, $925,000 will go Richards’ firm’s trust and $925,000 will go to FightBack. Another $150,000 will go to Ricky Schroder, a former child actor on the TV sitcom “Silver Spoons” who donated to Rittenhouse’s bail fund through FightBack.
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