Chicago will sue Sue Jussie Smollett for the cost of a hate crime investigation – Variety

The city of Chicago is preparing to sue Jussie Smollett, an "Empire" actor, for US $ 130,000 to recover the costs of his investigation into hate crimes.

Last week, the Cook County Prosecutor's Office dropped 16 counts against Smollett, accused of simulating a hate crime. The decision provoked an uproar in Chicago when Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other officials blew up the prosecutor's office.

Two days later, the city's law department sent Smollett a bill of $ 130,106.15 and gave him a week to pay. This deadline expired Thursday afternoon and the legal department issued a statement stating that he was preparing a lawsuit.

"Mr. Smollett refused to reimburse the City of Chicago for overtime costs incurred by the police to investigate his false police report on January 29, 2019," said the city. "The Legal Service is drafting a civil complaint to be filed in the Cook County Circuit Court (…). The legal service will file the complaint in the near future. As part of this lawsuit, the Legal Department will pursue all of the damages and interests authorized under the order. "

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Smollett has maintained his innocence. On January 29, he told the police that he had been jumped while he was walking down the street at 2am. He claimed that two men had beaten him, had poured him some bleach and had used racist and homophobic insults. The police then concluded that Smollett had hired his personal trainer, Abel Osundairo, and brother Ola from the coach to attack him. The police claimed that he was looking for a higher salary in the show.

The prosecutor's office presented the case to a grand jury, which indicted Smollett for 16 counts of filing false police report. The State Attorney's Office said it would stick to the police investigation, but that the Smollett case was not serious enough to warrant a jail sentence.

"I was elected on a promise to rethink the judicial system, to keep people out of jail that do not pose a danger to the community," state attorney Kim Foxx wrote in a Chicago article Tribune. "I promised to spend the limited resources of my office on the most serious crimes in order to create safer and more just communities."

Kevin Graham, president of the Chicago Chapter of the Order of Fraternal Police, held a press conference Thursday to ask Foxx to resign.

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