As Ursula Faw reported yesterday, Kyle Rittenhouse lost a motion to dismiss his lawsuit late Wednesday. In this column, I’ll analyze why this next phase is far more dangerous for Kyle.
Rittenhouse is not happy. That’s okay. People who lose motions that would have otherwise dismissed the big lawsuit against them seldom are. And this is the biggest of the biggest. The case is no “sure win” at all. He still has the self-defense retort, but with a new judge, more expansive evidence, and a much much lower bar of proof, he is in real trouble.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers said that Kyle conspired with the police, which was a proximate cause of the killings (You sue the police to ensure there is money on the other end). The Plaintiffs’ lawyers asserted that Rittenhouse conspired with the police to be in a position to commit homicide (Not murder, respect the jury’s verdict).
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Kyle Rittenhouse,this stupid little boy killed two people . . .
… it will stay that way for the rest of his miserable life.End of story.
💠 🧐 💠 pic.twitter.com/DZDtI2FsPl
— Marko Silberhand (@MarkoSilberhand) February 2, 2023
From NPR:
A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled Wednesday that a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of a man shot and killed by Kyle Rittenhouse during a protest in 2020 can proceed against Rittenhouse, police officers, and others.
The motion was almost surely based on whether the police had qualified immunity. If the complaint against the police is gone, the money is mostly gone, and thus the lawsuit is mostly gone. But the judge found enough evidence to outweigh qualified immunity.
Plaintiff John Huber, also alleged that Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, conspired with law enforcement to cause harm to protestors. John Huber is seeking unspecified damages from city officials, officers, and Rittenhouse. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman on Wednesday dismissed motions filed by Rittenhouse and the government defendants seeking to dismiss the civil rights lawsuit.
In allowing the case against Rittenhouse and the others to proceed, the judge said that Anthony Huber’s death “could plausibly be regarded as having been proximately caused by the actions of the governmental defendants.”
The Plaintiffs are still headed uphill on this one, but there is one big difference now between this case and Rittenhouse’s criminal case. If Rittenhouse and the cops “conspired,” it must have been based on some agreement and what the officers saw in Rittenhouse. It is unlikely, but not impossible, that evidence of Rittenhouse’s violent past will be admitted into evidence, violent or racist. If the conspiracy were in any way based on racism, then it would get worse for Rittenhouse and the police.
Now Rittenhouse faces some uncomfortable questions under oath. Questions that he did not face in preparation for the criminal trial, almost all involving his past and his plans with the police.
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: PROGRAMS FOR UPCOMING PRO WRESTLING HOUSE INVESTIGATIONS
Good, this needed to be done.
You played solider using a real military style killing machine, against innocent unarmed people, killing two, seriously wounding another, in a place you did not belong, and have reveled in the celebrity by other mindless racists. The ‘court’ may have let you off, but the universe is a little more hard assed. Whether you see or believe it, at 69, it looks to me to be a lot of evil shit to carry around at an early age. Enjoy the hard road mutherfucker. You earned it.
Ben Franklin once noted how a lot of men die at 30 but it takes a few extra decades of them walking the earth before they’re buried.
So it is here with the boy soldier. His life is over. Now it’s only a question of what he does before he’s buried himself.
Too bad the original judge in the murder case and the members of the jury who judged the punk “not guilty” can’t also be sued; every single one of them is just as complicit in the deaths that Rittenhouse caused as Rittenhouse and the cops. (The judge, at the very least, should’ve had been brought up on ethics charges, mainly for having his personal cell phone out on his desk during the trial; if a “civilian” had let his cell phone go off during proceedings, that person would’ve been removed, at the very least, and possibly faced contempt charges.)
It seems from the very beginning of this chaotic shooting that the only thing between Kyle and the most serious charges has been his uncanny ability to screw up his face and call down the tears … a convenient action he has used multiple times …
That sounds a little sharp on my part but, a review of all the times he was cornered in questioning, since there was absolutely NO reason for him to prance around, bearing a military style weapon at ANY age …
I have to admit. I cannot see why the police would conspire with him. They would not need his help and would see him in the way, mostly. But perhaps good lawyering can get around that. That is hard for me to believe
We all know that the 2A is “whites only” – A black man with a firearm is dead in 10 seconds far too often.
Take issue with one thing: That judge had a habit of being pro-defendant, what is what you want from a judge who it is supposed to be fair and not a rubber stamp for the prosecutor.
So, even though the judge’s rulings seemed “pro-Kyle” to a lot of us, it was right in line with his history. We are just so used to judges being pro-prosecution bc many are. But he was not giving Kyle an unusual break in that trial. It is why I always write that we respect the jury’s verdict.
They swore to only evaluate what they heard. If I was on that jury, I might have had to acquit him, too, based on what I heard in the courtroom. It is very very hard to “fool” a jury. Almost impossible. Many arrogant attorneys believe they can and it seldom works. They take their vow seriously and if told XYZ, they’ll follow it and no good lawyering gets around it. Prosecution was also outlawyered by the defense, intentionally or not.
They saw him with the weapon, didn’t they? Let him continue on?
It may be a dead horse, but, make him black and see if the police politely greet him before the shooting, although he is carrying an AR-15 like he’s on patrol, looking like he’s in middle school. He shoots and kills several people, walks away, firearm at the ready. The police don’t stop him. He goes home. He is helped by a biased judge and jury & gets off. He acts like he’s a hero, is embraced by the republican party, turned into a celebrity for hate, and now feels persecuted. This list if black? He’s shot and killed at the scene by the police, probably, if they saw him armed for battle. Certainly if they were told he was the shooter. Any questions?
Just one, Mr. Jackson. What do you think the odds are of a black male teenager, who grew up in the States, getting an illegal firearm, crossing state lines, and cos-playing as a cop at a demonstration?
He’s screwed. In a criminal case he has to be proven guilty ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. In a civil case we aren’t looking at that standard, but the lower one of proving the case to the balance of probabilities. This means they must prove that it is more likely than not that their version of events is correct.
Anyone can see that this is far easier to prove guilt here.
Big difference between this case and his original one: civil vs. criminal. O.J. Simpson got a not guilty verdict but lost in the civil case. Not sure how that happens but that not guilty verdict did not protect him.
May he end up on the hook for a huge amount, and once the limelight goes out, let him work minimum wage forever. Oh, and let him be forced to sell his goddamn guns. Time to grow the fuck up sonny.
I think his ass should go to prison along with his parents for even allowing him to have that gun . By the way , where were his parents ?