MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Black man paralyzed in a Wisconsin police shooting reached a plea deal Friday to settle a sexual assault case pending against him.
Online court records indicate prosecutors dropped a felony third-degree sexual assault charge and a misdemeanor criminal trespass charge against 29-year-old Jacob Blake. In exchange, Blake pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct, and Judge Bruce Schroeder sentenced him to two years of probation.
Prosecutors in Kenosha accused Blake in July of breaking into a woman’s home and sexually assaulting her. Officers tried to arrest him in connection with that case on Aug. 23, but Blake resisted, according to police.
Officer Rusten Sheskey, who is white, ended up shooting him seven times in the back as he tried to duck into his SUV, cellphone video from a neighbor shows. Sheskey’s lawyer contends that Sheskey believed Blake was trying to kidnap one of his own children and Blake turned toward him with a knife.
The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down and sparked several nights of protests in Kenosha that turned violent at times. Prosecutors have charged Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, with fatally shooting two men and wounding a third during one of the demonstrations.
