NBC producer appears to admit ordering freelancer to tail Rittenhouse jury bus: Kenosha police video
Policeman to NBC producer: 'We can't afford anything crazy happening'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A police video of the encounter between the Kenosha, Wis., police department and NBC freelancer James Morrison last month shows an NBC producer seeming to admit she instructed Morrison to follow a vehicle holding jury members in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial.
The video, taken on the night of Nov. 17 during deliberations in the closely watched trial, showed police questioning Morrison as to why he was following the vehicle, and reprimanding booking producer Irene Byon via phone for instructing him to do so.
A sign is pictured outside NBC headquarters at Rockefeller Center in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 16, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
"So were you following a vehicle?" the officer asked Morrison in the video, after he identified himself as a "producer" for NBC.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I was trying to see – I was being called by New York going, maybe these are the people you need to follow, but I don't know, I was trying to –" Morrison said, before the officer interrupted him asking, "You were trying to what?"
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"Just do what they told me to do," Morrison said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"New York told you to follow a vehicle?" the officer asked, to which Morrison responded, "Yes."
The officer asked if it was his "offices in New York," telling him to do so, to which Morrison said, "That's right."
"How did they know about this vehicle?" the officer asked.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I don't know," Morrison said.
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Morrison claimed he was intending to be discreet and wasn't trying to talk to anybody. "Just trying to find a location, that's all," he added.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The officer asked for the information of the person who told Morrison to follow the vehicle, and Morrison called Byon and put her on the phone with the police officer.
Kyle Rittenhouse reacts to the verdict as he sits next to one of his attorneys Corey Chirafisi during his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S., November 19, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/Pool via REUTERS)
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Notably, the officer asked Byon why she had a producer following "vehicles," without mentioning the van had the trial's jurors, but Byon said NBC wasn't trying to get in touch with "any of the jury members."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Hi officer, my name is Irene. I'm a booking producer with NBC News. We were just trying to respectfully – just trying to see if it's possible to find any leads about the case," Byon can be heard saying. "And so we were just keeping our distance, just to see where people involved in the trial are positioned. By no means were we trying to get in contact with any of the jury members or whoever is in the car. We just were trying to see where key players in the trial may be at."
"You advised him to follow any vehicle? Did you know which vehicle he was following?" the officer asked.
"We just had our people positioned in different areas of the courthouse to see if anyone would be able to –" Byon said before her audio started to fade in and out.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The officer than admonished the pair.
"Well, we're going to ask you guys to not do that. All right? That's a concern here. This is huge. We can't afford anything crazy happening, putting people in dangerous positions. This individual violated some traffic laws here doing this. So we're going to ask you guys to refrain from doing that," the officer said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Judge Bruce Schroeder alerts the attorneys that an MSNBC staffer was ticketed the previous night during Kyle Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool) ( (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool))
Both apologized to the officer and Morrison was later released after receiving a traffic citation.
Following the encounter last month, an NBC spokesperson provided a statement to Fox News reading, "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. We regret the incident and will fully cooperate with the authorities on any investigation."
The following day, Judge Bruce Schroeder banned MSNBC from the courtroom over the incident. The jury went on to acquit Rittenhouse on all charges for the shooting deaths of two people and the injury of another last year during unrest in Kenosha. Rittenhouse successfully argued he acted in self-defense.
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Byon and NBC News didn't respond to requests for comment.