Jussie Smollett Must Pay Chicago $138,000 on Thursday or Face Civil Lawsuit
If Smollett does not pay the $130,000 today, the Chicago Department of Law may prosecute him “for making a false statement.”
Last week, the State’s Attorney’s office in Cook County dropped the felony charges against Jussie Smollett for allegedly pulling off a fake racist and homophobic attack.
A few days later, Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked Chicago’s Law Department to send Smollett a letter that demanded he pay back the city $138,000 to cover the costs of the investigation.
From CBS Chicago:
The March 28 letter said, if Smollett does not pay within seven days, the city could prosecute him for making a false statement, and take him to civil court to seek up to three times that amount as damages, plus court costs and attorney’s fees.
“It is the Mayor and the Police Chief who owe Jussie – owe him an apology – for dragging an innocent man’s character through the mud. Jussie has paid enough,” Smollett’s defense team said in a statement the day the city sent that letter.
If the city moves forward with a civil lawsuit against Smollett, the standards for proving he staged the January attack would be lower than in criminal court. While a criminal trial requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt for a conviction, a civil trial would require the city to prove only that a “preponderance of evidence” – meaning it’s more likely true than not – that the incident was a hoax orchestrated by Smollett.
The letter stated that the police department “conducted an extensive investigation into” Smollett’s report that two white men attacked him on January 29 “while yelling racial and homophobic slurs.” The Department of Law reminded Smollett that the police department used “[O]ver two dozen detectives and police officers” to investigate the claims and many of them accumulated “a substantial number of overtime hours.”
The investigation meant the “Chicago police reviewed video and physical evidence and conducted several interviews, expending resources that could have been used for other investigations.” The police concluded that Smollett “knowingly filed a false police report and had in fact orchestrated” the attack.”
If Smollett does not pay the $130,000 today, the Department of Law may prosecute him “for making a false statement.” If this happens, Smollett faces “a fine of not less than $500.00 and a maximum of $1,000.00, plus up to three (3) times the amount of damages the City sustains as a result of the violation.” This includes seeking “to recover court costs, collection costs, and attorney’s fees.”
Smollett’s attorneys demanded Emanuel and Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson apologize to the actor “for dragging an innocent man’s character through the mud.”
Emanuel and Johnson tore into Smollett at an epic press conference after the prosecutors dropped the charges. Emanuel told the press that since “he doesn’t feel any sense of contrition and remorse, my recommendation is when he writes check in the memo section [of the check], he can put the word ‘I’m accountable for the hoax.'”
I will update this post if Smollett pays today.
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Comments
Que?
The State’s Attorney Office dropped “the federal charges” against dipstick?
Ha! Quietly edited to “dropped the felony charges”.
It’s great news, but it’s also a tad short-sighted. Emmanuel is out and a new mayor is in. Given her constituency, she may well let Smollett off the hook.
At this point Chicago politics makes predictions unreliable. Its a vile culture and is one reason I would never live in Chicago.
She worked on the Police Accountability Board—and already announced she is going after him.
I would submit, sir, that the vile and corrupt culture of Chicago (which I believe is derived from the Miami-Illinois word “shikaakwa,” which means striped skunk or smelly onion) makes predictions entirely reliable. Who here thought Smollet would see a day in jail? But he’ll probably pay up because based on additional information I have learned that Smollett makes $65K per episode for a series I HAD NEVER HEARD OF UNTIL HE GOT ARRESTED. Let that sink in.
Why wouldn’t he give up his gratuities (I would say earnings but I just can’t because obviously this criminal doesn’t earn a goddamed thing) for two episodes of his nothingness? He still gets to b*tch and moan about how the evil right wing white supremacist Chicago establishment (!!!???!!??) is oppressing the poor black gay man. And he’ll probably get the raise he wanted when he staged this hoax and make it all back in a couple of days.
It’s a win win situation.
Lightfoot is another historic first this, that, blah, blah, blah. But she is one of Rahm’s handpicked. So Rahm wouldn’t be making this threat if he didn’t know his handpicked successor would act on it.
They’ll make a deal.
G-d. I wish I didn’t know how corruption works. But I was born and raised in the SF Bay Area. And back in the seventies and eighties it wasn’t so bad. Now when I visit my mom, who is in her eighties and will never leave as she is too emotionally attached and I totally respect that, if I take BART (what they call the subway) from SFO to the nearest station to my former home I have to tiptoe through the heroin needles, human feces, by the passed out or worse frantic druggies and hope that urine-rusted street light doesn’t fall on me.
You want me to post pictures?
The urban blight is a feature, not a bug, as far as the left is concerned. And by urban blight I include not only the feces and the hypodermic drug needles on the sidewalks and in the subway stations but the corruption. The people running these sh*t holes make good money doing so.
There is so much here it would take a multi-volume set of books for me to unpack. But let me sum it up like Davy Crocket.
“You may go to hell. But I will go to Texas.”
Hello, Texas. I wasn’t born here, but I got here as quick as I could. And, if you’re worried about this old-fashioned Californio who was fashioned before the state was ruined, I don’t bring any of those new fashioned STDs (State Transmitted Diseases) with me. I am your canary in the coal mine, Texas. I get a whiff of the new California twisted SJW madness and I’m like, “Hey, Texas, don’t buy any of this s**t. It may seem innocuous now, but this is how it starts.”
But back to visiting my mom. When I fly I don’t check luggage; I’ve already stocked locally sourced toiletries and she still has a washing machine and dryer. What do I need with the extra expense of a checked bag?
Well, now I need to check my bag so I can, now that the airlines have lost their sense of humor about personal weaponry but embraced transgenderism. I can’t take my Khukri with me.
https://himalayan-imports.com/
And I would need it because of the wildings.
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Police-Meet-to-Address-Violent-Teen-Wildings-262109521.html
You know what the BART authorities reaction was to the fact that “teens” (as if we’re talking about the Amish or Lutherans) was? Surprise, surprise, remove the security cameras lest they “stigmatize” the “teens” i.e. blacks and Hispanics.
I have no problem taking on my weight In Wildcats, in whatever form it comes.
https://www.blackfive.net/main/2011/01/the-fight-one-lone-retired-gurkha-against-a-train-with-40-bandits.html
As long as I’m suitably equipped. Otherwise, I do what I am now forced to do when I visit my mom. Take a cab.
Speaking of Wildcats, I believe this is still here.
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM48NA_F4F_3_Wildcat_Butch_OHare_Exhibit_OHare_International_Airport_Chicago_IL
Good.
and the Feds are still looking at the letter he mailed himself.
at least i hope they are.
I hope we start to see a pattern of accountability which has been seriously lacking. One reason that liberals hate Trump as the new boss is that “business as usual” has been disrupted. And by trying to maintain the status quo, they are just exposing their charades for all to see.
And, he has the opportunity to “triple down.”
Has he started his Go Fund My Hoax page yet?
He will receive a Barack and Michelle Obama Scholarship grant to study White Nationalism in whiteout winter weather for 138 grand.
Some say he did this fraud on behalf of Michelle Obama’s 2020 Run.
Not for whatsherface, Ol’ Ho Ho HO.
Kamala Harris….that’s her name…..
I can see their thinking.
It would motivate the Democrat slave populations.
Blacks for voter turnout, and
Gay BLT for the Million$ in contributions……
Even if (and that’s a big if) this goes to civil trial, the jury, regardless of its make-up, finds him financially responsible, will immediately be called racist.
To bear: Maybe people need to get past their fear of being called names.
He looks like a sissy.
While I believe smullet is a fraud, without honor or integrity, suing him is a bad precedent. Chicago PD should sue the state’s attorney office if anyone.
Why would it be “bad precedent?”
Where does it stop? For the sake of argument, let’s say you report a series of crimes against you the police simply can not prove. If you received a bill for their time and service, it would in all likelihood lead you to stop reporting and leave you in despair. That could be a huge opportunity for stalkers, ex spouses/lovers with axes to grind etc. Or, what if a cop simply didn’t want to do his/her job, and when you called for service, they threw out the line: “You can report this crime, but if we determine it’s a hoax, you will be liable in civil court for all expenses.” I can think of many scenarios where this could be abused. And if it CAN be abused, sooner if not later it WILL be abused.
Where does it stop? I never stops. Wake up, bro. You are in battle from the cradle to the grave. I don’t like it any more than you do but pretending doesn’t make it go away.
When will they investigate the interference fron Obama’s assistent?
Apparently, he didn’t pay and he’s doubling down on stupid.