A day after making headlines with his angry outburst against the prosecution in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial, Kenosha County District Court Judge Bruce Schroeder continued to attract attention, criticism and accusations of bias.
On Thursday, the judge sparked heated reactions with a comment about “Asian food,” and his attempt to honor veterans led the courtroom to applaud a man who appeared to be the only veteran in the room: a defense witness.
Schroeder is Wisconsin’s longest-serving judge and is in his mid-70s, according to official records. In late October, he already attracted national attention and was accused of favoring the defense when he said the people shot by Rittenhouse could not be called “victims” during the trial.
Prohibiting the use of “victims” is a regular part of his court practice. But his decision to refer to the same people as “rioters, looters and arsonists” was the beginning of a pattern of Critics of Rittenhouse accuse the judge of bias And Rittenhouse’s supporters celebrate the judge’s decisions.
As allegations of bias mounted during the trial, Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother said Thursday that she thought the judge was “very fair.”
Wendy Rittenhouse told FOX News Channel’s Sean Hannity that she had been told by locals that “he doesn’t tolerate nonsense in his courtroom.”
Those comments came as Schroeder’s recent controversy gained national attention. On Thursday, he attempted a joke in response to a question about a lunch break: “I hope the Asian food doesn’t come … not on one of those boats in Long Beach Harbor,” he said.
The comment apparently referred to the situation on the West Coast, where a record number of cargo ships were waiting off the coast of California because of a backlog in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
More: Lawyer claims Al Sharpton would ‘intimidate’ the jury in Ahmaud Arbery case: ‘We don’t want any more black pastors’
Critics found the joke offensive.
“The biased judge in the Rittenhouse trial just made a thinly veiled anti-Asian comment,” tweeted Stanford law professor Michele Dauber. “Because all Asian food comes from China like boats, haha what a fanatic.”
Former Vermont Governor Howard DeanThe Democrat used the clip to criticize the judge and the judicial system that had made him preside over the trial: “Schroeder has set an example of how not to be a good judge. The selection system in Wisconsin is also seriously flawed,” he tweeted.
“They are elected on first appointment and there is no retirement age. That is why we have such excessive and unsuitable judges all over the country.”
In another incident early in the Veterans Day hearing, Schroeder asked the courtroom if anyone was a veteran. The only person who answered “yes” was expert witness John Black.
Schroeder asked Black, “Which branch?”
Black replied, “Army, sir.”
“OK, and I think we can applaud the people who have served our country,” Schröder said.
The judge clapped. The spectators in the stands also began to applaud, including a defense attorney and Rittenhouse.
Honoring veterans is not uncharacteristic of Schröder, who wore a tie decorated with American flags on Thursday and whose phone ringtone, as heard in court, was “God Bless the USA.”
But Schroeder risked making Black appear more credible to the jury by asking for applause, said Steven Wright, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Wright believed the moment was a mistake on the judge’s part.
However, it is unlikely that this matter will be investigated further, regardless of the outcome of the trial.
If the jury finds Rittenhouse not guilty, there likely won’t be an appeal. If they find him guilty, Schroeder’s mistake can only be considered an accessory to Rittenhouse’s crime and not an argument for the appeal, Wright said.
While critics on social media have frequently attacked the judge, other experts have argued that prosecutors botched some aspects of the Rittenhouse case.
“Some have criticized Judge Bruce Schroeder after he upheld long-standing constitutional principles,” wrote Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, in a USA TODAY opinion column.
“Even without the prosecution’s unforced errors, this was always going to be a difficult case. Wisconsin has a strong self-defense standard. When a defendant claims he acted to avert a threat, the burden of proof is on the prosecution to disprove that claim beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Contributor: The Associated Press. Follow Drake Bentley on Twitter @DrakeBentleyMJS.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Judge’s joke about Kyle Rittenhouse’s ‘Asian food’ sparks backlash on social media
