At a short hearing Friday, Judge Bruce Schroeder approved two deals — one, agreed to by Rittenhouse, was to let authorities destroy the rifle; the other was to divvy up the $2 million bail with actor Ricky Schroder and a Texas non-profit organization led by Atlanta lawyer Lin Wood.
Under the agreement, $920,000 will be paid, in trust, to Richards & Dimmer, the Racine law firm that defended Rittenhouse. Another $925,000 will go to #FightBack Foundation. Schroder, who posed with Rittenhouse soon after he was released on bail, gets back $150,000 he contributed.
The judge denied an 11th-hour attempt by a California-based hedge fund trust to claim the bail money. The trust claims to be the assignee of a litigation financing company that was owed millions of dollars by Rittenhouse's first attorney, John Pierce of Los Angeles, and had obtained judgments against him.
The trust claimed its right to all assets of Pierce's firm and business entities included the bail, since he posted the $2 million with a check from his firm's account.
Rittenhouse's attorney, Mark Richards, argued Friday the money was wired to Pierce's firm from #FightBack, and went through Pierce's client trust account, so the money would never be subject to liens by business creditors.
In an affidavit, the trust's officer in charge of recovering assets from Pierce also claimed that despite Pierce's huge debt, the trust decided to contribute $300,000 to Rittenhouse's bail as an investment.
