Leave it to the Windy City to not let shit go.
Suggested Reading
The City of Chicago says it intends to sue actor Jussie Smollett after he missed a deadline on Thursday night to pay back the city $130,000 for the cost of investigating the alleged attack against him, Deadline reports. The deadline was imposed by outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
(Ahem. Sir. You donโt even go here anymore.)
A city spokesperson told Deadline Thursday night:
โMr. Smollett has refused to reimburse the City of Chicago for the cost of police overtime spent investigating his false police report on January 29.โ
โThe 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. Smollettโs L.A. based legal team.โ
While Emanuel set Smollettโs fee at $130,000, Chicago can seek as much as $390,000 from the actor, according to the cityโs by-laws. According to the Chicago Tribune, the city notified Smollettโs legal reps by letter last week, warning that if the fine wasnโt paid by April 4, city officials โmay prosecute you for making a false statement to the city.โ
Smollett, best known for his work on the popular TV series, Empire, was accused by Chicago police of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself in late January. By early March, a grand jury returned a 16-count indictment against the actor, who maintained his innocence throughout the scandal. As Smollett and Chicago PD accused each other of wrongdoing, the stage appeared set for a high-profile, messy trial.
That is, until Cook County Stateโs Attorney Kim Foxxโs office suddenly dropped all charges against Smollett on March 26โcutting a deal with the 36-year-old actor to perform two days of community service and forfeit his $10,000 bond to the City.
The reportedly had Chicago PD leaders losing their damn minds. Emanuel called it a โwhitewash of justiceโโbecause, I suppose, he would know best.
Never one to miss an opportunity to throw gasoline on a public relations fire, the Chicago Police Union and some suburban chiefs are calling on Kim Foxx to resign her position following the fiasco (Foxx, for her part, said she didnโt take part in any decision-making about the case).
As for Smollett, Empire co-star Taraji P. Henson told the View Thursday morning that she expects the actor to be back on the show for its sixth season (he was written out of the final two episodes of the current season during the height of the investigation). Other sources tell Deadline that Smollettโs return is unlikely, but the final decision has yet to be made.
Corrected on Friday, April 5 at 10:54 a.m. EDT: An earlier version of this article stated that Cook County Stateโs Attorney Kim Foxx recused herself from the Jussie Smollett case. While her office used the term โrecuseโ in announcing the decision, it later clarified that the term was meant in a colloquial, not a strictly legal sense. The post has been updated to more precisely reflect Foxxโs role.
Updated on Friday, April 5 at 11:14 a.m. EDT: The Chicago Tribune obtained a letter from Smollettโs legal team, sent to the Chicago Law Department, formally refusing to reimburse the city.
Calling the cityโs letter โfactually and legally flawedโ Smollettโs attorneys said their client โwill not be intimidated into paying the demanded sum.โ
โYour claim that that Mr. Smollett filed a false police report and orchestrated his own attack is false and defamatory,โ the letter read. โFurthermore, it is apparent that your threats were made maliciously and in bad faith, and without an honest belief that a cause of action against Mr. Smollett exists.โ
You can read the full letter here.
Straight From
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.