The judge overseeing Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial has banned MSNBC employees from the courthouse, saying a man working with the network tried to follow the bus transporting jurors on Wednesday night.
“I have instructed that nobody from MSNBC News be permitted in this building for the duration of this trial,” Judge Bruce Schroeder said on Thursday. “This is a very serious matter and I don’t know what the ultimate truth of it is, but absolutely it would go without much thinking that someone who is following a jury bus, that is a very … that is an extremely serious matter and will be referred to the proper authorities for further action.”Â
The man identified himself to police as James Morrison ,a freelancer with the network and said he had been instructed by a superior named Irene Byon to follow the jury bus, according to Insider. Schroeder said the man received a ticket for violating a traffic control signal.
Police said no photos of any jurors were actually taken.
“Last night, a freelancer received a traffic citation. 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,” NBC News said in a statement. “We regret the incident and will fully cooperate with the authorities on any investigation.”
The jury in the Rittenhouse case has been deliberating since Tuesday. Rittenhouse was charged with five felonies: first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, after shooting three men, two fatally, at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year after police shot unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake.
Rittenhouse claimed he acted in self-defense while the prosecution argues he provoked the protesters by showing up heavily armed to a volatile protest.
