Television Reporter Wil Herren for KADN Channel 15 in Lafayette, Louisiana
(KADN) — As the hearing for drug, child endangerment, and a firearm charge approaches for popular law YouTube channel owner, Nick Rekieta, one website lawyers up for access to everything.
After he, wife Kayla Rekieta, and “live-in nanny,” April Imholte (now Anderson), were arrested for child endangerment, drug possession (24 grams of a methamphetamine), and a weapon charge, Nick Rekieta fights to keep the body cam footage and proceedings private.
When the three were arrested, Rekieta’s five kids, who range from small child to teenager, were placed with their grandparents. Currently, all five have been released back to Nick and Kayla as of early August.
Rekieta, who grew his YouTube channel to well over 500,000 subscribers when he would comment over the publicly streamed Johnny Depp and Kyle Rittenhouse trials, believes it is a legal/safety issue. In his weekly streams on YouTube, Rumble, and Locals, Rekieta explained that giving consent to the bodycam being released so “Internet gawkers” could see where his children sleep would work against him in his child endangerment case.
Fighting to make the bodycam footage and proceedings public is the founder and owner of Kiwi Farms, Joshua Moon. Kiwi Farms is an Internet web board that documents infamous YouTube/internet personalities. To get the footage, Moon reached out to Kandiyohi County.
According to Moon, in late May, Kandiyohi said that they would require 50 hours to process the video, and it would cost $60 an hour. Moon crowdfunded $7,000 in 3 hours to pay for the work, but it was not released. Moon has requested through his legal representation, The Hardin Law Offices, that the bodycam footage and that all legal proceedings be released to the public.
“Rekieta had alleged that his 4th Amendment protection from unwarranted search was violated, because police lied regarding probable cause to get a search warrant,” the founder of Kiwi Farms told News15.
In his first hearing after the arrest, which was streamed publicly on Zoom, “Rekieta claimed that April Imholte and Kayla Rekieta asked for their attorney, specifically requesting Nick Rekieta to represent them, and they were denied,” Moon added.
He believes Rekieta is going to say that his clients' 6th Amendment Rights were violated when he was not given access to his wife and their nanny.
“The Sheriff’s Department or Health and Human Services are at liberty to request that the footage be released to the public in order to dispel widespread rumors,” Moon said to KADN.
In an August 2024 web story, FOX 9 out of Minneapolis-St.Paul called the Kiwi Farms web board, a “Stalker Site,” to which Moon strongly objects.
“You could very easily say that Facebook is a stalker website or Instagram is a stalking website. It is really an inferior way to describe what amounts to a gossip forum,” Moon expounded, “It implies a level of criminality to it that doesn't exist.”
As more information is released regarding this case, News15 will update you online.