A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that a civil rights lawsuit against Kyle Rittenhouse can go forward.
The city and county of Kenosha, Wisconsin were also named in the same lawsuit, which was filed in August 2021 by the family of Anthony Huber, one of three men shot by Rittenhouse a year earlier amid protests surrounding the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Rittenhouse was acquitted in a homicide trial in the deaths of 26-year-old Huber and 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum. He was also found not guilty of injuring 26-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz.
Rittenhouse had gone to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois after businesses were ransacked and burned in the nights that followed Blake’s shooting. He was carrying an AR-style semi-automatic rifle that authorities said was illegally purchased for him because he was underage.
The civil lawsuit seeks “to hold the municipalities and law enforcement officers involved in the police response to the protests liable for [Huber’s] death,” according to the ruling.
Rittenhouse and the city and county of Kenosha sought to dismiss the case, arguing the case “failed to properly allege federal civil rights claims.” Both motions to dismiss were denied by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman.
Attorneys and private investigators for the Huber’s father spent over 100 hours trying to locate Rittenhouse, tracking down addresses in seven states before the lawsuit was served on Rittenhouse’s sister in Florida, who said that he wasn’t home. Adelman said that was sufficient to qualify as being served.
Rittenhouse had argued that the case against him should be dismissed because he wasn’t properly served with the lawsuit. Adelman dismissed that, as well, saying that Rittenhouse “is almost certainly evading service.”
Rittenhouse attorney Shane Martin told the Associated Press that it’s important to note the ruling doesn’t address the merits of the case, it only allows it to proceed to the next phase.
