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Lawyers Lin Wood and John Pierce left the teen's team before the homicide trial began. Kyle Rittenhouse's defense attorney Mark Richards told CNN that the teen's former attorneys were using him for "a cause" rather than simply representing a client. Richards said he was hired by Rittenhouse's prior attorneys, Lin Wood and John Pierce.
The man who bought Kyle Rittenhouse the AR-15 ... Just hours before closing arguments in the high-profile case, Judge Bruce Schroeder threw out a misdemeanor charge against Rittenhouse of being a minor in possession of a dangerous weapon.
The lead lawyer representing Kyle Rittenhouse is Mark Richard, a veteran defense lawyer and former prosecutor. Let's learn more facts about Kyle Rittenhouse Lawyer, Mark Richards. Mark Richards is an American lawyer. He is leading Rittenhouse’s defense. Richards has worked on more than 100 jury trials.
Rittenhouse was released from jail while he was waiting for his trial in November after a $2 million bond was posted by his former attorney John Pierce, with a cashier’s check from his law firm Pierce Bainbridge. Former child actor Ricky Schroder and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell were credited with donations that enabled Rittenhouse’s release.
Wood and Pierce were Rittenhouse's first attorneys and haven't been shy about their pro-Trump politics.
Kyle Rittenhouse's defense attorney Mark Richards told CNN that the teen's former attorneys were using him for "a cause" rather than simply representing a client. Richards said he was hired by Rittenhouse's prior attorneys, Lin Wood and John Pierce.
Thomas BingerThomas Binger is the lead prosecutor in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Here's more on the Kenosha County assistant district attorney.
Mark RichardsNPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Mark Richards, Kyle Rittenhouse's attorney. Rittenhouse was facing life in prison for shooting and killing two men. He was found not guilty on all charges.
Rittenhouse's lead lawyer is Mark Richards, 59, a veteran criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. He primarily represents people accused of violent crimes or drug crimes. He joined Mr. Rittenhouse's defense team in September 2020, and took charge of the defense in January 2021, replacing John Pierce.
Two lawyers who briefly worked on Rittenhouse’s case — and helped raise $2 million to help get him released from jail as he awaited criminal charges — want their cash back, but the now acquitted teen’s family is fighting the move.
Ricky Schroder contributed to the fund to spring Rittenhouse from jail.
Attorney Lin Wood says the $2 million should be returned to him because his foundation provided the money.
Former child actor Ricky Schroder and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell were credited with donations that enabled Rittenhouse’s release.
Mike Lindell donated money to get Rittenhouse released from jail.
12, 2021 file photo. Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges.
Kyle Rittenhouse's defense attorney Mark Richards told CNN that the teen's former attorneys were using him for "a cause" rather than simply representing a client.
Wood and Pierce were Rittenhouse's first attorneys and haven't been shy about their pro-Trump politics.
Rittenhouse had been charged with first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of reckless endangerment. Another misdemeanor weapons possession charge had been thrown out by the judge in the case.
Wood left the case to unsuccessfully litigate claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, while Pierce was let go by the teen's family.
Richards said he told the teen when they first met that he wasn't going to fight over anything that wasn't tied to his legal defense.
Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted Friday of all charges after fatally shooting 2 people and injuring one more.
In a statement to Insider on Friday evening, Pierce said that they disclaimed any entitlement to the bail money.
Kyle Rittenhouse looks on as John Black, use-of-force expert, testifies during Kyle Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Nov. 11, 2021. (Mark Hertzberg/Pool via REUTERS)
KENOSHA, Wis. – Kyle Rittenhouse’s future went to a 12-person Wisconsin jury Tuesday, in a murder trial whose outcome has local residents bracing for renewed protests and Americans from coast to coast waiting for the verdict on the edge of their seats.
Rittenhouse, who is White, shot three White men, two of them fatally. The defense has argued self-defense while prosecutors have accused him of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felonies in connection with slayings. A sixth charge, for allegedly having the rifle illegally in his possession, was dropped. Pierce had predicted it would be dismissed more than a year ago.
They maintain that he opened fire only in self-defense — after being attacked by a group of grown men .
Prosecutors in court argued that the teen provoked the shootings by showing up with a gun.
Pierce said he didn’t expect the small but loud demonstration outside to sway jurors’ either.
Michael Ruiz is a U.S. and World Reporter for Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @mikerreports. If you've got a tip, you can email him at Michael.Ruiz@Fox.com.
Kyle Rittenhouse shot three men, killing two of them and wounding the third, during a protest against police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. Rittenhouse has argued that he fired in self-defense after the men attacked him.
Pierce said at the time that Rittenhouse's case was 'absolute 100 percent self-defense, and we're going to prove it if we have to.'
The Rittenhouse family said they grew uncomfortable with Pierce, telling the New Yorker that he drank excessively in front of Wendy's kids, called Kyle's sister a 'raging liberal,' and charged the family for time spent shopping for a shirt to wear on Tucker Carlson's show.
A year ago, while representing Rittenhouse - which he did from shortly after the August 25 shooting until December 2020 - he predicted the gun charge would be dismissed
In March, Wendy told the Law & Crime podcast: 'They used Kyle to gain money, gain Twitter followers.
Pierce, 49, told Fox News on Tuesday: 'This case should have never been brought.
Wendy Rittenhouse, Kyle's mother, told The New Yorker she had concerns about the #FightBack Foundation, the group founded by Pierce.
Sean Krajacic / The Kenosha News via AP. Rittenhouse is due back in court Sept. 17. A trial date is still set for Nov. 1, and it is expected to last about two weeks.
Richards has said in court documents that Rittenhouse and his family have moved into an undisclosed safe house because they’ve received multiple threats. Elisha Fieldstadt is a breaking news reporter for NBC News. The Associated Press contributed.
He also faces a misdemeanor count of being a minor in possession of a firearm. Rittenhouse maintains he was defending himself, and conservatives have rallied around him, painting him as a symbol for gun rights. They generated $2 million for his bail in November.
Rittenhouse, dressed in a dark-colored suit and wearing a black mask, said nothing during Friday morning's hearing in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Kenosha was in the throes of several nights of chaotic protests after a white police officer shot Blake, who is Black, in the back during a domestic disturbance. The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down.
Video shows Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, opened fire on protesters Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz with an AR-15-style rifle. Rosenbaum and Huber died. Grosskreutz was wounded but survived.
Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges n connection to the fatal shooting of two people and wounding of another during last year's unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Mark Richards said Rittenhouse feared for his life when he opened fire.
Prosecutors called 22 witnesses over the course of six days as they sought to show Rittenhouse acted recklessly that night and provoked Rosenbaum by pointing the rifle at him, setting off the ensuing series of events.
The deliberations come after a two-week trial highlighted by emotional and compelling testimony from Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old at the center of debates around self-defense, gun ownership and Black Lives Matter demonstrations. On the stand, he told jurors -- and the viewing public -- that he acted in self-defense.
However, on the stand, Rittenhouse testified he acted in self-defense when he shot four times at Rosenbaum, who he said had threatened him earlier, chased him, thrown a bag at him and lunged for his gun. Rittenhouse also referred to the three other people he shot at as part of a "mob" chasing him.
There, Rittenhouse fatally shot Rosenbaum -- who was chasing the teenager and threw a bag at him -- and then tried to flee. A crowd of people pursued the teenager, and Rittenhouse shot at an unidentified man who kicked him; fatally shot Anthony Huber, who had hit him with a skateboard; and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, who was armed with a pistol.
The charges stem from the chaotic unrest last year in the wake of the Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake , a 29-year-old Black man. After instances of rioting and fiery destruction, Rittenhouse, 17 at the time, took a medical kit and an AR-15-style rifle and joined up with a group of other armed people in Kenosha on August 25, 2020.
On the night of Aug. 25, 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse went from being described as a 17-year-old police enthusiast to a teenage gunman accused of shooting three people, two of them fatally.
Both played key roles in "putting us over the top" in coming up with $2 million for bail, Rittenhouse's former defense attorney Lin Wood said.
The murder case against Rittenhouse was thrown into jeopardy when his lawyers asked for a mistrial over what appeared to be out-of-bounds questions asked of Rittenhouse by the chief prosecutor.
On the stand, Grosskreutz said he confronted a rifle-toting Rittenhouse with a gun of his own to try to stop the bloodshed.
Rittenhouse faces multiple charges. The hom icide charges include one count of reckless homicide, one count of intentional homicide and one of attempted intentional homicide. A legal expert says the difference in the charges is that prosecutors aren't alleging that Rittenhouse intended to kill the first man he shot. But the charges in the other two shootings allege that Rittenhouse intended to shoot those men.
The two people killed were identified as 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum, of Kenosha, and 26-year-old Anthony Huber, of Silver Lake, Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, a juror in the murder trial was dismissed after a court security officer reported that the man told a joke about the police shooting of Blake, which set off protests in the Wisconsin city.