A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of one of the individuals shot and killed by Kyle Rittenhouse during a 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration can proceed.
The lawsuit, filed by the father of Anthony Huber — one of two men killed by Rittenhouse — seeks unspecified damages from Rittenhouse, City of Kenosha officials and Kenosha police officers.
Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and four other charges last year after he crossed state lines to attend a BLM demonstration in Kenosha, where he killed two individuals and injured one. A jury acquitted Rittenhouse of all criminal charges in November 2021 after Rittenhouse’s legal team argued the killings were in self-defense.
Rittenhouse and the other defendants previously attempted to dismiss the ongoing lawsuit on the basis that Rittenhouse was not properly presented with physical documents of the charges against him — a practice commonly known as “serving” a lawsuit — according to the Associated Press.
However, in his decision Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman ruled Rittenhouse was “almost certainly evading service,” noting Huber family lawyers hired three private investigators who spent “more than 100 hours” trying to locate Rittenhouse.
Lawyers representing the Huber family deemed the ruling a “momentous victory” in a press release Tuesday. However, Adelman’s decision only means the case has sufficient legal merit to proceed to trial and bears no indication on future proceedings.
Rittenhouse’s legal team remained “confident” he would win the wrongful death suit in a Thursday statement to the Associated Press.
“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,” Rittenhouse attorney Shane Martin said.
Multiple other lawsuits against Rittenhouse are currently ongoing, according to the AP, including a filed by Gaige Grosskreutz, who was also shot by Rittenhouse but survived.
Rittenhouse has amassed over 1 million Twitter followers since his acquittal. He has also made appearances at multiple conservative events, including a conservative megaconference in Phoenix where a crowd of thousands greeted him with cheers, according to the Arizona Republic.
Ian Wilder is a senior staff writer and current men’s hockey beat reporter for The Daily Cardinal. He’s a former state politics and features reporter. Follow him on Twitter at @IanWWilder.
