The judge overseeing the trial for the man accused of killing six and wounding dozens in a 2021 Christmas parade said Friday the defendant was frightening her in court.
Darrell Brooks Jr., 40, slammed the table with his fists and became silent while fixing Judge Jennifer Dorow with an unblinking stare shortly after she said his accusations the state had coached his own witnesses "had absolutely no basis in fact."
"This man right now is having a stare-down with me. It's very disrespectful. He pounded his fist. Frankly, it makes me scared," Judge Jennifer Dorow said in court while the jury was out of the room on Friday, calling for a break in proceedings.
Brooks has been representing himself in a trial fraught with his frequent interruptions and outbursts in what prosecutors have characterized as an attempt to "stall, delay, disrupt, intimidate."
Brooks is accused of driving a red SUV down the Waukesha, Wisconsin, parade route late last year and charged with six counts of first-degree intentional homicide, 61 counts of recklessly endangering safety, six counts of hit-and-run causing death, two counts of bail jumping — all felonies in connection to the parade tragedy — and one count of misdemeanor battery related to an incident with his ex-girlfriend.
Brooks faces 76 charges, including six homicide counts, in connection with the Nov. 21 incident in Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb.
Things broke down Thursday morning just before prosecutors rested their case. Brooks became agitated when District Attorney Susan Opper introduced a rap video that Brooks starred in that shows him standing in front of the SUV in an attempt to link him to the vehicle.
Brooks argued that Opper sprung the video on him without notifying him that it could be part of the evidence.
"This is mind-boggling," he said.
He also complained that Opper and other prosecutors have been laughing at him under their breath since the trial began.
Opper told Dorow that she laughed Thursday because the video had been mislabeled and nothing prohibits her from pulling anything out of her briefcase and offering it as evidence. She said she was tired of Brooks questioning the ethics of both the judge and the prosecution team.
"He continues to suggest and impugn the integrity of this court without a basis. He doesn't like it because the evidence is stacking up and stacking up (against him)," Opper said. "I do not appreciate his impugning the integrity of these proceedings, your honor's efforts to run a fair trial and our efforts to run a fair trial."
Dorow said she was tired of Brooks rolling his eyes at her, gesturing at her and fighting with her.
"I don't like your tone and the way you're talking to me," Brooks said.
Dorow responded by telling him to sit down and stop talking.
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