Wisconsin judge bans MSNBC from courtroom during nationally watched trial

MSNBC was banned from the courtroom toward the end of the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse after a freelance reporter for the cable network was stopped by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, while driving behind a bus containing members of the jury. 

Key Players

James Morrison was reporting for MSNBC when he drove through a red light a block behind the jury bus. 

Judge Bruce Schroeder, who was appointed to the Kenosha County Circuit Court in 1983 by Gov. Anthony Earl (D), banned MSNBC from the courtroom, impeding coverage of the case.

Kyle Rittenhouse is a 19-year old from Antioch, Illinois. On August 25, 2020, Rittenhouse, 17 at the time, fatally shot two men and wounded another in Kenosha during riots, protests, and civil unrest that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed black man. Before the protests, Rittenhouse had participated in local police cadet programs and had also posted support for the Blue Lives Matter movement and law enforcement on social media.

Further Details

In August 2020, during a season of turmoil across the United States, the nonfatal shooting of Jacob Blake by a white police officer sparked protests and unrest in Kenosha, a city of around 100,000 in southeast Wisconsin. Car Source, an auto business that had a dealership, a used car lot, and another car lot, had been badly damaged by protestors during riots. Rittenhouse traveled to Kenosha from Illinois and arrived at Car Source on Aug. 25. It is unclear whether the owners of Car Source specifically requested armed help to defend their business, but witness accounts claim that the business did seek some kind of armed support. During more protests on the night of Aug. 25, Rittenhouse fatally shot two men who were among the protesters and wounded another with an AR-15. His attorneys would later argue that he had acted in self-defense.

In November 2021, Rittenhouse’s trial was widely publicized throughout the country, with many people from near and far taking sides in the case. 

On Nov. 17, Morrison was pulled over by Kenosha police after driving through the red light. Body camera footage showed that Morrison told an officer that he had been instructed  by NBC headquarters in New York City to follow the jury bus. At the time of the incident, the jury was still deliberating its verdict.

During the exchange, Morrison called NBC. On the phone, the officer spoke with Irene Byon, an NBC booking producer, who said Morrison had been instructed to follow the jury bus for potential leads, not to make contact. At the end of the call, the officer told the booking producer that such instructions, leading as they did to Morrison running a red light, could endanger public safety.

 A spokesperson for NBC News, the parent network of MSNBC, verified to The Washington Post that Morrison was a freelancer and affirmed that he was instructed not to make contact with the jurors. 

“While the traffic violation took place near the jury van, the freelancer never contacted or intended to contact the jurors during deliberations, and never photographed or intended to photograph them,” the spokesperson told The Post.

Outcome

Judge bans MSNBC from his courtroom

The next day, Schroeder called the situation an “extremely serious matter” and banned MSNBC from his courtroom, CBS News reported. Despite the consequences, the police said there was no breach of security and no photographs were taken of the jurors, who had been kept anonymous by order of the court. 

Rolling Stone, among other media, criticized Schroeder, accusing him of acting rashly in his decision to ban MSNBC from continuing to cover public judicial proceedings 

Schroeder had also been in the news for controversial decisions made throughout the trial, including his choice to allow lawyers to call those shot by Rittenhouse “looters” or “rioters,” but not “victims,” Deseret News reported.  

MSNBC agrees to cooperate with investigation of its representative at the trial

Although MSNBC denied ordering Morrison to make contact with the jurors, the news outlet said it would cooperate with any investigations of his conduct. 

Rittenhouse acquitted on all charges by Kenosha County Court

On Nov. 19, 2021, jurors for the Kenosha County case pronounced Rittenhouse, who had argued that his actions were out of self defense, not guilty on all five counts, after 27 hours of deliberation that spanned four days. At an event in Phoenix, Arizona organized by conservative student group Turning Point USA, Rittenhouse was hailed as a “hero to millions.”

Rittenhouse has since not faced any federal charges, and because federal law applies to homicide cases narrowly, such as the crime needing to have occurred on federal land, it was deemed unlikely that federal prosecutors would file charges.