Lawyers allege Kyle Rittenhouse avoids them

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Lawyers for a man shot and injured by Kyle Rittenhouse during a 2020 protest are asking a federal judge to give them more time to serve Rittenhouse with a civil suit, alleging he is deliberately trying to escape.

Attorneys for Gaige Grosskreutz filed the request on Wednesday, the deadline U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman gave them to serve the trial on Rittenhouse and the other defendants. Grosskreutz added Rittenhouse as a defendant last week in the lawsuit that also targets the city of Kenosha and local authorities.

The lawsuit, originally filed in October 2021, charges Rittenhouse and other defendants, including a host of local law enforcement agencies, with causing the injuries Grosskreutz suffered that night. She is claiming an indeterminate amount of damages.

The lawsuit is similar to that filed by the father of Anthony Huber, one of two men shot by Rittenhouse and killed that night.

Rittenhouse was charged with homicide, attempted homicide and reckless endangerment for killing Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and wounding Grosskreutz with an AR-type semi-automatic rifle in the summer of 2020 during a tumultuous night in protests over the killing of a black man, Jacob Blake, by a white Kenosha police officer.

Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges in November 2021 after testifying that he acted in self-defense. Rittenhouse’s actions have become a flashpoint in the debate over guns, vigilantism, and racial injustice in the United States. He was 17 at the time of the shooting and is now 20.

A lawyer for Grosskreutz said in a court filing Wednesday that all of the other defendants except Rittenhouse had accepted and waived service of trial. Rittenhouse’s attorney in the Huber lawsuit said he was not authorized to accept the service and a person believed to be Rittenhouse’s mother who answered the door of a Florida home said “Rittenhouse was been gone for some time,” according to the filing.

Grosskreutz “is currently unaware of Mr. Rittenhouse’s current whereabouts and is concerned that Mr. Rittenhouse may attempt to evade service,” according to the filing requesting a 60-day extension to serve him.

Last week, Rittenhouse changed attorneys for the Huber trial, returning to one of his trial defense attorneys, Mark Richards. Richards said Thursday that he was not representing Rittenhouse in the Grosskreutz lawsuit.

Richards also said he did not know where Rittenhouse was.

“I don’t know how to find Kyle,” Richards said. “I don’t currently know where Kyle is.”

Adelman, in the Huber trial, earlier this month denied a motion by Rittenhouse and other defendants seeking to dismiss the case. The judge said in that case that Huber’s death “could plausibly be considered to have been closely caused by the actions of the government defendants.”

Lawyers and private investigators for Huber’s father spent more than 100 hours trying to locate Rittenhouse, searching addresses in seven states before finding his mother and sister’s home in Florida. The lawsuit was served on Rittenhouse’s sister, who said he was not home. Adelman said that was enough to qualify as served in the Huber case.

Rittenhouse’s attorneys had argued that Huber’s case against him should be dismissed because Rittenhouse had not been properly served with the lawsuit. Adelman dismissed this, saying Rittenhouse “almost certainly avoids the service”.

“Rittenhouse has been deliberately suspicious of his whereabouts,” Adelman wrote earlier this month. “While he denies living in Florida, he does not identify where he considers his residence.”

In 2020, Rittenhouse traveled to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois after businesses were ransacked and burned in the nights following Blake’s shooting. He joined other armed civilians in the streets, carrying a weapon that authorities say was bought from him illegally because he was underage.

Rittenhouse first killed Rosenbaum, 36, in the parking lot of a car dealership and as Rittenhouse fled from the scene he tripped and fell. Huber, 26, hit Rittenhouse with his skateboard and tried to disarm him. Rittenhouse fell to the ground and shot Huber and injured protester Grosskreutz, who was 27 at the time.

Rittenhouse has maintained a high public profile, especially on social media, where he is a strong gun rights advocate. He has nearly a million Twitter followers and has spoken at conservative rallies.

He tweeted a fundraising appeal this week in reference to the Grosskreutz lawsuit, saying: “This lawsuit is an attempt to drown anyone who legally and rightfully defends their life against attackers in a mountain of legal debt. We can’t let them win. If they can come after me, they’ll come after you.

Grosskreutz, who testified at the trial, last year sought to change his legal name due to what he now says was ongoing harassment related to the case.