Jussie Didn't Pay up, Now Chicago's Dragging Him to Court
Jussie Smollett hasn’t paid the city of Chicago for the cost of the investigation into the attack he allegedly suborned. Now, it looks like he’s going to be back in court.
According to WMAQ-TV, Windy City officials announced Thursday they’re suing the “Empire” actor for failing to reimburse them the $130,106 they say they spent investigating an alleged hate crime committed against Smollett, an assault officials have held was a hoax.
Charges were dropped against Smollett in exchange for forfeiting his $10,000 bail and (possibly) a laughable community service gig with Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
However, that doesn’t mean that Chicago is done with him.
The lawsuit, which was filed in civil court, would mean that jurors could decide whether Smollett had orchestrated the attack on himself. The evidence in that direction seems to be strong, given that two brothers he worked with have said they were roped into staging an attack on the black, gay actor.
Authorities said that Smollett’s motive was to get a raise.
“Mr. Smollett has refused to reimburse the City of Chicago for the cost of police overtime spent investigating his false police report on January 29, 2019,” a statement from city legal department spokesman Bill McCaffrey, read, according to USA Today.
“The Law Department is now drafting a civil complaint that will be filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Once it is filed, the Law Department will send a courtesy copy of the complaint to Mr. Smollett’s Los Angeles-based legal team.
“As part of this legal action, the Law Department will pursue the full measure of damages allowed under the ordinance.”
The dismissal of the charges had seemed to be a strange end to the case. Smollett had originally claimed that two white men had attacked him early on the morning of Jan. 29; the men had poured an unknown chemical on him and put a rope around his neck while allegedly shouting, “This is MAGA country!”
There was no video footage of the attack, however, and Smollett’s account soon began to be questioned. There was the fact that he hadn’t called police from the scene, that he refused to turn over phone records that would have proved his story (and then later turned them over in a format that could easily be manipulated) and that, throughout the entire attack, his Subway sandwich somehow managed to emerge unscathed.
Police would later raid the home of two brothers of Nigerian descent who had worked with Smollett previously who claimed that the attack had been staged.
Of course, this probably should have been obvious from the beginning, considering the fact there were few people who would have considered Chicago “MAGA country.”
It appears that Smollett isn’t going to admit responsibility for the alleged hoax, and the prosecutor’s office doesn’t seem particularly interested in proving the case.
However, Smollett’s problems are far from over. The city of Chicago sent him a bill for the investigation almost the instant that Kim Foxx decided to break with every prosecutorial norm and let Smollett go.
The FBI and Department of Justice are also reviewing the case and why Foxx declined to pursue the charges.
In short, the $130,000 bill from the city of Chicago might be the least of the actor’s problems. Given the possibility of a court trial, one wonders why he wouldn’t pay up so that there wasn’t any official judgment on what happened in the early hours of Jan. 29. Either way, it appears justice will find Mr. Smollett.
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