A federal judge in Madison, Wisconsin has ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Kyle Rittenhouse by the father of a man shot and killed by Rittenhouse in August 2020 can proceed as planned.
According to PBS, attorneys for Rittenhouse had sought to have the suit dismissed.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman on Wednesday dismissed motions filed by Rittenhouse and the government defendants seeking to dismiss the civil rights lawsuit.
In allowing the case against Rittenhouse and the others to proceed, the judge said that Anthony Huber’s death “could plausibly be regarded as having been proximately caused by the actions of the governmental defendants.”
Rittenhouse had argued that the case against him should be dismissed because he wasn’t properly served with the lawsuit. Adelman dismissed that, saying that Rittenhouse “is almost certainly evading service.”
Attorneys for Huber said they spent over 100 hours trying to locate Rittenhouse so he could be served, with Judge Adelman noting in his ruling, “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.”
Anand Swaminathan, an attorney for the Huber family, said the judge’s ruling means his clients are now “one step closer to justice for their son’s needless death.”
“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.”
Rittenhouse was criminally charged with homicide and reckless endangerment for the shooting deaths of Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum. He traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois, complete with an AR-15 style assault rifle. He later said he had done so to protect businesses that were at risk when riots began after a white Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake, a black man.
In November of 2021, Rittenhouse was acquitted on all charges after he claimed he acted in self-defense. Since his acquittal, he has become a darling of right-wing media and gun rights groups.