Rittenhouse Prosecutors Allegedly Hid Identity of Key Witness From Defence

The prosecution's alleged cover-up of the identity of the so-called “Jump-Kick Man: — a lifelong criminal offender — could give Kyle Rittenhouse's defence a third or fourth cause to demand a mistrial from Judge Bruce Schroeder.

Kenosha County prosecutors in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial have been accused of withholding more evidence from the defence — this time the identity of the "Jump Kick Man".

Fox News reported the identity of the previously unnamed man as 39-year-old Maurice Freeland — and quoted sources saying he approached the prosecution before the trial offering to testify.

It said Freeland, who has a two-decade criminal record, "approached the prosecution to testify in exchange for immunity for other charges", including one of driving under the influence, "but they rejected the offer".

The so-called "Jump-Kick Man" is one of Rittenhouse's alleged victims in Kenosha on the night of 25 August 2020. Video footage played in evidence at the trial shows him launching a flying kick into the face of the defendant, then 17, as he lay in the street during rioting in the Wisconsin city.

Rittenhouse is charged with the first-degree reckless endangerment of the Jump-Kick Man, who has not yet ben named in court, for firing two shots towards him, neither of which hit.

He is also charged with the first-degree murder of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and the first-degree attempted murder of Gaige Grosskreutz, who he shot through the arm. The jury's deliberations entered their fourth day on Friday.

On Tuesday, local radio station WISN host Dan O'Donnell said his team had identified the man, but declined to name him.

EXCLUSIVE: We have identified the mysterious Jump Kick Man who stomped on Kyle Rittenhouse as a career criminal who should have been in jail instead of part of the mob on the street the night of the shootings. https://t.co/cybELpEeW8

— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) November 16, 2021

O'Donnell did reveal that the Jump-Kick Man was on 12 months' probation at the time of the shooting for domestic violence battery. The charge could have seen him jailed for up to nine months, but struck a plea bargain with the prosecutors two months before the incident.

The man broke his probation terms earlier this year and was jailed for seven months.

O'Donnell reported that Freeland's criminal record goes back two decades and includes "multiple felony convictions for car theft, ID theft, drug possession, and escaping custody".

The journalist argued that had the prosecution not offered Freeland a get-out-of-jail deal, he would not have set in motion a series of events which led to Huber's death and Grosskreutz's injury.

"Had Jump Kick Man been sentenced to even two months in jail instead of probation, he would not have been in Kenosha the night of the shootings", he wrote.

"His kick, which prompted Rittenhouse to fire two shots at him, may well have provoked Huber to strike Rittenhouse with his skateboard a second time, causing Rittenhouse to shoot and kill him", O'Donnell explained. "That in turn prompted Grosskreutz to advance on Rittenhouse and draw his handgun on him, which caused Rittenhouse to shoot him in the arm".

The defence has already accused the prosecution, led by Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger, of withholding key evidence and asked Judge Bruce Schroeder to declare a mistrial on that basis.

They said Binger's assistant Jim Kraus emailed them a lower-resolution copy of a video — under a very different file name form the one shown in court — which the prosecution claimed to have received from an unknown source during the trial.

Binger and Kraus argued a still from the video, which had been digitally altered with pixels added as it was blown up to zoom in on Rittenhouse in the distance, showed the right-handed youth raising his AR-15 rifle to his left shoulder to allegedly threaten others.

That was moments after Rittenhouse had extinguished a fire started by Rosenbaum and his companions in a car at a dealership, and just before the older man chased him across the car lot.

Rittenhouse's defence is that Rosenbaum chased him and tried to seize the rifle he was carrying, while Huber hit him on the head and neck with a skateboard before also grabbing the rifle and Grosskreutz trained his .40-calibre Glock semi-automatic pistol at the teenager's head. Grosskreutz admitted pointing his gun at Rittenhouse in his testimony to the trial.

Last week the defence team asked Schroeder for a mistrial with prejudice, meaning Rittenhouse could not be re-tried, after Binger tried to sneak back in evidence ruled inadmissible pre-trial during his cross-examination of the defendant — and even tried to attack him for exercising his Fifth Amendment right to silence.

And on Thursday Schroeder banned MSNBC news from the courthouse for the remainder of the trial after police caught a freelancer for the national TV network tailing the jurors' bus back to their accommodation on Wednesday evening.