‘COME ON!’ Rittenhouse Judge Tells Prosecutor ‘I Don’t Believe You’ in Jawdropping Rebuke
Judge Bruce Schroeder wound up in a second shouting match with prosecutor Thomas Binger as the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse continued Wednesday afternoon.
The murder trial plunged into chaos earlier in the day when Schroeder scolded Binger over his attempts to cross-examine Rittenhouse by delving into propensity evidence. While Binger argues that Rittenhouse’s trial testimony warrants questions about his character, propensity evidence is typically excluded in pretrial, and Schroeder chewed Binger out for going beyond the agreed-upon trial parameters.
As the trial continued, Rittenhouse’s defense team moved to file for a mistrial with prejudice, which would have ended the case without the prosecution being able to file again. When the trial returned to the subject of excluded evidence, Binger once again argued that Rittenhouse’s testimony during direct examination by his defense attorneys had opened the door to cross-examination about those comments and the implications for his personal character:
I was taken aback by the defendant admitting that he had said to this person yes I pointed a gun at you, and I think it’s fair to say that watching that video, that that person believes strongly that this happened, the defendant is telling them it happen. And now they’re giving us a different version and saying “I was just joking.” I would like to probe what he said to that person. I’d like to probe what his motivation — I’d like to probe whether or not he really did do that.
As Binger kept on arguing in favor of the relevancy of his questions, Schroeder interjected, “I had made a ruling that the evidence wasn’t coming in, and you decided that it was.”
“I was about to say, I did not interpret your ruling is an absolute,” Binger said, and then attempted to mention other evidence he wished to bring before court. “Don’t get into other subjects!” Schroeder cut him off.
“Come on!” Schroeder exclaimed. “You’re an experienced trial attorney, and you’re telling me that when the judge says ‘I’m excluding this,’ you just take it upon yourself to put it in ’cause you think you’ve found a way around it? C’mon!”
Binger tried again what he called a “good faith explanation” that he took Schroeder’s previous rulings to mean “you left the door open on other things” that allowed him to probe Rittenhouse on new grounds.
“I don’t believe you,” Schroeder admonished him. “There better not be another incident. I will take the [mistrial] motion under advisement.”
“When you say that you were acting in good faith, I don’t believe that, ok?” Schroeder concluded, instructing both the prosecution and defense attorneys: “Let’s proceed, everybody, in good faith.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
