The shouting that unfolded on Wednesday in Kyle Rittenhouse’s homicide trial has thrust the presiding judge, Bruce Schroeder, and his style of unusual lectures and quirky questions in court under the spotlight.
Schroeder heavily admonished prosecutors in the trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, questioned the authenticity of some pinch-to-zoom footage presented in evidence, and apparently forgot to silence his phone in court, which at one point rang with a song used at Donald Trump’s rallies.
The trial is in its second week. The defense team rested its case on Thursday afternoon, setting the stage for closing arguments on Monday, and the prosecution said it would seek approval for the jury to consider lesser charges against the teenager on some criminal counts.
Kyle Rittenhouse had taken the stand in his own defense on Wednesday and Thursday amid dramatic scenes in the courtroom.
Rittenhouse, 18, has pleaded not guilty to six charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree attempted intentional homicide.
He killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, when he shot them with a military-style assault rifle during night-time protests in August 2020, after a white police officer shot a local Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back and gravely wounded him.
The Kenosha county assistant district attorney, James Kraus, on Thursday said he planned to ask the judge to allow the jury to consider lesser charges on the counts involving Huber and Grosskreutz, a move that would lower the burden of proof for conviction.
Meanwhile, proceedings had became highly charged on Wednesday. Rittenhouse sobbed on the stand, the defense requested a mistrial and the judge gestured and shouted angrily at the lead prosecutor, accusing him of asking questions of the defendant that were legally out of bounds.
Schroeder, 75, is Wisconsin’s longest-serving circuit judge. Over the years he has developed a reputation of being a tough jurist.
“He has a reputation for doing what he believes is the right thing and being an independent thinker,” said William Lynch, a retired attorney who served on the Wisconsin board of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) advocacy group at the time Schroeder controversially started ordering sex workers to get tested for HIV in the 1980s, which drew scrutiny.
After graduating from Marquette law school in Milwaukee in 1970, Schroeder worked as a prosecutor and was then appointed as circuit judge in 1983 by Wisconsin’s governor at the time. Schroeder, whose current term ends in 2026, has been “in this business for 50 years”, as he said at one point during the Rittenhouse trial’s jury selection.
He is known for delivering lectures that emphasize the importance of civic duty to prospective jurors. Schroeder opened jury selection last week by reaching back to the fall of the Roman empire to stress the gravity of jury duty, saying: “When Rome fell, the world changed dramatically.”
He also spoke of priests blessing trials in which defendants had to place their hands on burning coals or in boiling water – if they “didn’t come out too badly”, that was a sign from God of their innocence.
The judge gave potential jurors trivia questions, echoing the style of the TV quiz show Jeopardy.
One potential juror said he had nasal surgery scheduled. The judge asked him: “What would you rather do: be here with me or have your nose operated on?”
Before the trial, Schroeder ruled that the men shot by Rittenhouse cannot be referred to as “victims” by prosecutors. Defense attorneys may, however, call them “arsonists” or “looters” if they could justify those labels. Prosecutors argued that Schroeder was establishing a double standard.
On Wednesday, Schroeder appeared to sympathize with the defense team after Rittenhouse’s lawyers suggested Apple’s pinch-to-zoom feature on tablets and phones can distort video evidence.
The company’s “iPads … have artificial intelligence in them that allow things to be viewed through three-dimensions and logarithms,” the defense team argued. “This isn’t actually enhanced video. This is Apple’s iPad programming creating what it thinks is there, not what necessarily is there.”
Schroeder responded that the prosecution shouldered the burden of proof that Apple does not use artificial intelligence to manipulate footage.
“You’re the proponent of the exhibit, and you need to tell me that it’s reliable,” he said. The judge also suggested prosecutors find an expert during their brief recess, saying: “Maybe you can get someone to testify on this within minutes? I don’t know.”
During the prosecution’s cross-examination on Wednesday, Schroeder stunned trial viewers as he reprimanded assistant district attorney Thomas Binger for questioning Rittenhouse’s post-arrest silence, which Schroeder has disallowed.
“Don’t get brazen with me,” Schroeder told Binger at one point.
As the defense argued for a mistrial with prejudice over Binger’s actions, Schroeder’s phone suddenly rang to the ringtone of God Bless the USA.
Released in 1984 by Lee Greenwood, the song is popular in conservative circles and often played as Trump’s entrance theme during his rallies.
The trial continues.
The Associated Press contributed reporting