Federal judge says wrongful death lawsuit against Kyle Rittenhouse can proceed
Luke Gentile
Video Embed
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of one of the men Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed in the Kenosha riots will proceed, a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled Wednesday.
Anthony Huber was one of the two men Rittenhouse killed in August 2020 during the riots following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, by police.
WATCH: COLIN KAEPERNICK BEHIND HULU DOCUSERIES EXPOSING ALLEGED POLICE CORRUPTION
Huber’s father, John Huber, first filed the lawsuit against Rittenhouse in 2021 and named Rittenhouse, law enforcement personnel, and officials as defendants, according to a report.
The lawsuit alleges that Rittenhouse conspired with police to harm protesters and that officers violated Anthony Huber’s constitutional rights when they allowed a dangerous situation to manifest, which resulted in his death.
Rittenhouse’s legal team and other defendants had filed motions to dismiss, but U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman on Wednesday rejected them and allowed the civil rights lawsuit to proceed.
The death of Anthony Huber “could plausibly be regarded as having been proximately caused by the actions of the governmental defendants,” Adelman said.
The decision to allow the lawsuit to move forward does not highlight its merits, Shane Martin, an attorney for Rittenhouse, said.
“While we respect the judge’s decision, we do not believe there is any evidence of a conspiracy and we are confident, just as a Kenosha jury found, Kyle’s actions that evening were not wrongful and were undertaken in self-defense,” according to Martin.
It took John Huber’s lawyers and private investigators more than 100 hours to locate Rittenhouse, according to the report.
After finding addresses relating to the 20-year-old across seven states, Huber’s team finally found the Florida home of Rittenhouse’s mother and sister, where his sister was served after saying Rittenhouse was not home, the report noted.
Rittenhouse later tried to have the lawsuit dismissed, citing the fact that he was not served properly, which Adelman rejected.
He “is almost certainly evading service,” Adelman said. “Rittenhouse has been deliberately cagey about his whereabouts.”
“Although he denies living in Florida, he does not identify the place that he deems to be his residence.”
The family of Anthony Huber is “one step closer to justice for their son’s needless death,” Anand Swaminathan, an attorney for Huber’s parents, said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“The Kenosha officials that created a powder keg situation by their actions tried to claim that they cannot be held accountable for their unconstitutional conduct; that argument was soundly rejected today,” according to Swaminathan.
Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges in the November 2021 homicide trial against him, and he has maintained that his actions were necessary for self-defense.