What to Know About Mark Richards, the Lead Rittenhouse Defense Lawyer

U.S.|Kyle Rittenhouse’s defence is led by a high-profile section lawyer.

The pb lawyer representing Kyle Rittenhouse is Mark Richards, 59, a seasoned defence lawyer and erstwhile authoritative who has spent his vocation successful Kenosha and Racine, Wis., chiefly representing radical accused of cause crimes and murder.

He joined Mr. Rittenhouse’s ineligible squad successful September 2020, but took complaint of the defence successful January 2021, replacing John Pierce, a lawyer who had helped Mr. Rittenhouse rise wealth for his lawsuit and counts members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia among his clients.

Mr. Richards, a Wisconsin native, has worked arsenic a lawyer for 34 years, archetypal arsenic a authoritative successful the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office, past successful Racine. According to his biography, helium has tried much than 100 assemblage trials.

The notable defendants helium has represented see Tyler Huffhines, who was arrested successful 2019 and accused of moving a black-market vaping cognition successful Kenosha County with his brother. In 1999, Mr. Richards defended a Racine jailhouse inmate who was accused of choking his cellmate to death. The lawsuit against the defendant, Kurtis King, was dismissed aft a abstracted probe recovered grounds of misconduct by the situation guards.

He besides successfully defended Jaime Rojas, a Racine nonmigratory who was accused of murdering his wife. Mr. Rojas insisted that his wife, who suffered from depression, had changeable herself; Mr. Richards and an researcher recovered a slug embedded successful an attic level that detectives had missed. The grounds forced Racine prosecutors to drop charges against Mr. Rojas.

Another lawyer connected the ineligible squad for Mr. Rittenhouse, Corey Chirafisi, is based successful Madison, Wis. Mr. Chirafisi met Mr. Richards years agone erstwhile they faced disconnected successful court: Mr. Chirafisi was prosecuting a antheral accused of robbing a bank, and Mr. Richards was defending him. Mr. Chirafisi prevailed, and the suspect was recovered guilty.