Judge in Rittenhouse trial: Media coverage has been 'really quite frightening'

Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder, presiding over the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, criticized media coverage of some of the decisions he's made in court, saying, "What's being done is really quite frightening."

Video Transcript

BRUCE SCHROEDER: As I spoke about it on the first day of trial, the result of the trial should be open to public scrutiny and people should have confidence in the outcome of the trial. I think we can all agree on that. And it's just a shame that irresponsible statements are being made.

And as long as I'm talking about it, I guess I'm going to talk about that too. The business about people not being identified as victims-- how would you like to be put on trial for a crime and the judge introduced the case to the jury by introducing you as the defendant and the person who is accusing you as the victim? And then throughout the trial, have all the references to the complaining witness as being the victim.

Is it so difficult to just use the term, complaining witness, instead of prejudging what the jury is here to determine as to whether there's a victim and whether there was a crime committed? So I don't know. Well, I'll leave that comment at that. And then finally, I'm now reading about how bizarre and unusual it was to have the defendant pick the numbers out of the tumbler yesterday.

And I would admit that I don't know that there's a large number of courts to do that, maybe not any. I do it because of an incident that I had in a case I tried in Racine, oh, I'm going to say-- I estimated 20 years ago it could have been less than that, it could have been more. But it was a big case. I think it was a murder case, but I'm not sure.

And there was a Black defendant and there were 13 jurors, one of whom was Black. And when the clerk, the government official, drew the name out of the tumbler, it was the Black, the only Black. There was nothing wrong with it, it was all OK. But what do they talk about-- optics, nowadays? Is that the word for things?

That was a bad optic I thought. I think people feel better when they have control. So ever since that case, I have-- which was-- well, ever since that case, I've had an almost universal policy of having the defendant do the mix. It had nothing to do with anybody's race or anything like that. And I never had a complaint about it before. In fact, I haven't had a complaint about it here, but some people seem to be dissatisfied with that, and people who want to undermine the result of the trial. So that's today's statement on that subject.

THOMAS BINGER: Your honor, is why I do my best to avoid reading anything anybody's writing about this case, because we know what happens in here, they don't.

BRUCE SCHROEDER: Well, and I don't always have that luxury, though, because I've got to-- but anyway. And some of the things that have been said too, I guess I'll comment on that too. These are five very reputable, competent attorneys that I've practiced with for years. And I think it's shameful some of the things that are being done to these people.

And when I talked about problems with the media when this trial started, we're there, in part-- not fully, but in part-- because of grossly irresponsible handling of what comes out of this trial. I will tell you this-- I'm going to think long and hard about live television of a trial again next time.

I don't know. I've always been a firm believer in it because I think the people should be able to see what's going on. But when I see what's being done, it's really quite frightening. Frightening, that's the right word for it.