“Under your black robes of justice you wear a white robe of the Klan.”
QUICK FACTS:
- On Thursday Judge Bruce Schroeder revealed that he had been sent offensive emails during the trial, some calling him a racist, according to The Daily Mail.
- DailyMail.com reviewed hundreds of offensive communications sent to the judge presiding over the Kyle Rittenhouse case in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
- One email addressed to “Your Honor” reads, “I didn’t know that under your black robes of justice you wear a white robe of the klan.”
- One disturbing communication threatened the lives of the judge’s children, promised “pay back,” and stated that Rittenhouse “won’t live long” if acquitted.
- Another reads, “Enjoy your term, judge, it’s going to be your LAST. If I ever meet you in person, I fully intend to spit directly into your face,” notes Daily Mail.
- Many emails had been sent anonymously or using pseudonyms.
- Judge Schroeder promised he would “deal with” the senders saying, “I wouldn’t want to be those people.”
FOX NEWS REPORTS:
Schroeder, 75, has attracted a lot of media attention since the trial got underway, including for his efforts to assert control of the court proceedings. Some critics, for example, have accused the judge of exhibiting a bias against the prosecutors in the case.
“Don’t get brazen with me!” Schroeder said to prosecutor Thomas Binger at one point during the trial, after Binger had questioned defendant Rittenhouse about deadly-force laws.
One email writer took issue with Schroeder’s directive that the men shot by Rittenhouse not be called “victims” during the trial. Rittenhouse and his defense team do not deny the defendant pulled the trigger last year during protests in Kenosha. They are arguing that Rittenhouse did so in self-defense.
“So I can’t call the wounded men victims, says ur judge,” the email writer’s message said, according to the Daily Mail. “One day hope his kids become victims to the most heinous homicide known to man so he feels the pain. … Racist b—–d god will pay u back for ur statement.”
Although many of the messages have been sent anonymously, many others received by the judge have been signed with the writers’ full names, the Examiner reported.
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Closing arguments in the trial are expected to be heard Monday after testimony – including from Rittenhouse, in his own defense – concluded this week.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide and two counts of endangerment with a deadly weapon, the Examiner reported.
The Aug. 25, 2020, night of unrest in Kenosha during which the Rittenhouse shootings took place followed the police-involved shooting and wounding of Jacob Blake in the city two days earlier.
