On Thursday, the City of Chicago filed a civil lawsuit against Jussie Smollett. This lawsuit comes after their threat – in the form of a strongly worded bill – to see if they could get Jussie to pay for the costs of the investigation. When the city of Chicago sent him the bill demanding $130K, I said at the time that it didn’t make any legal sense – all of the charges were dropped against Smollett, he was not found guilty in any court of law, and he has never made any kind of plea or admission of guilt. What legal basis does the city of Chicago have for demanding payment for the investigation which is, legally speaking, a legitimate one in which no one went to jail or even went to trial? Well, that’s what this lawsuit is about – the $130K being demanded is “meant to cover the cost of police overtime during the investigation,” meaning they want Jussie to pay for “1,836 overtime hours” AND $1000 for each “false statement” made by Smollett. Again, he was never convicted of anything. Here’s more about the lawsuit:
Jussie Smollett purposely tried to mislead authorities by falsely describing the men he claimed attacked him as white, according to a civil lawsuit filed by the city of Chicago. The city filed the suit against the “Empire” actor over his refusal to reimburse it for overtime payments to police officers who investigated his alleged hate crime hoax. The complaint, filed in the Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday, comes after the city gave Smollett a week earlier this month to pay $130,000 in the police overtime.
Smollett, 36, who is black and gay, allegedly hired brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo, who also are black, to stage an assault on him and make it look like a hate crime, according to authorities.
The actor told cops that the primary attacker “was wearing a ski mask that covered his entire face, with the exception of the area around his eyes, by which (Smollett) could tell the attacker was white-skinned,” according to the lawsuit.
“(Smollett) made this statement despite knowing that the Osundairo Brothers are not white-skinned,” the suit says. “By providing this false description, (Smollett) purposely misled the CPD officers to believe that his attackers were white, when, in fact, (Smollett) knew that his attackers were the Osundairo brothers.”
In adds: “At no point did Defendant inform police that he knew his attackers or recognized their appearances or voices.”
I wish I could put the hand-clap emoji in-between every word here: Jussie. Smollett. Was. Not. Convicted. Of. Anything. The cops can’t even prove that Jussie LIED about anything. They can prove that the Osundairo brothers were involved somehow, but that’s only from the brothers’ own statements, not from any corroborating statements from Jussie. I still believe that the state’s attorney dropped the charges because the Chicago PD utterly f-cked up the investigation too, and because the CPD were leaking all of that crazy sh-t to TMZ on an hourly basis. According to those real-time leaks, the Chicago detectives never even believed Jussie’s story, and their hours of overtime investigation were spent disproving his story.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
I would tell CPD to kiss my pretty brown ass. AND they are in no position to take any moral high road.
This is so illegal. He wasn’t convicted of anything so they can’t charge him. I agree that he definitely didn’t, but you can’t penalize someone for a crime they were not convicted of. I guess they might win in civil court because the burden of proof is lower, but the courts will be reticent to set the precedent that cops can sue without a conviction. You can’t penalize someone for a crime they weren’t convicted of. Smolett is probably guilty, but the next person and the next person and the next probably won’t be.
NO PENALTIES WITHOUT CONVICTION.
Do they seriously think this is making them look good?
They do realise they are going to end up paying all his legal fees, right?
Can any legal experts weigh in? Do they have any possibility of winning this?
Do they present their case of his guilt and then they could be awarded money? Like OJ being ordered to pay the Goldman family in civil court when he wasn’t convicted in criminal court?
Yes. They absolutely do.
It will be a lot easier to prove that he is guilty in civil court and it will hurt him just as much as a criminal conviction in this case because he likely would not have done jail time. They will prove his guilt AND he will pay.
Let’s not forget he wasn’t absolved for the “crime.” The DA just decided she wouldn’t press for it and whatever else is going on with her office. That doesn’t mean he was found “not guilty.”
Thank you!
I don’t think they’d be doing this without some legal basis. I would guess he had some type of backdoor plea deal because if they really were just dropping his charges, he wouldn’t have forfeited his bail and done community service.
Courts will be reticent to set the precedent that the police can sue civilians who haven’t been convicted of a crime because it’s a dangerous precedent to set. The burden of proof is lower in civil court so without a precedent it’s difficult to say how a judge would rule. Victims of a false police report can sue for defamation and emotional distress, but this lawsuit doesn’t seem to have any precedent in Illinois.
Some relevant Illinois laws:
The Code of Criminal Procedures allows for the state to sue for the costs of prosecution (including law enforcement costs) but only after conviction. The False Claims Act allows the state to sue for damages in cases of fraud for financial gain (payment or approval), but Smolett did not receive any financial gain from the state so it doesn’t apply. The Police Search Cost Recovery Act allows police to sue for the cost of an investigation into a missing child in which a parent or guardian knowingly concealed their whereabouts.
None seem to apply to the Smolett situation. I think the cops are grandstanding for the PR, personally.
It is ridiculous. Fuck jussie for eternity. But tell me how this is not racist. Did they ever go to these extends to punish white criminals?
Looking forward for aunt becky to get community service for that fraud scheme.
Chicago resident here. CPD is the most racist organization that I have ever encountered. I am the whitest person you’ll ever meet, and it’s crystal clear to me that this city just hates black people.
I just recently pulled a Kim K.W. and applied to some local law schools because I am getting so f**king sick of seeing this waste and corruption. To be fair to me, I have a degree from a good college (that my parents didn’t bribe me into) and graduated with honors, so please don’t beat up on me too much 😉
Also a Chicago resident and this is absolutely correct. Everyone knows the CPD is wildly racist. They’re also hugely ineffective and pretty unpleasant, everyone dreads having to deal with the cops.
Didn’t I see a story from Chicago this morning of cops pushing a 16 year old down stairs and tasting her at school? They said she instigated it but a video has proved otherwise?
Bryn, I’m not sure, but that wouldn’t surprise me. The cops here are power mad and scary af.
I’m white, but my boyfriend is black and we’ve learned to just keep our heads down and avoid any interaction with anyone we don’t know, just to be safe. I used to live in a much smaller city where I felt safe calling the cops if I needed to, but we’ve seen street fights, drunken driving, you name it and we do not call the cops because we don’t want to be in their cross hairs ourselves.
I read this article right after I read the story on CNN about the cops and the 16 year old (also, they were not just pushing but punching her). OF COURSE a 16 year old instigated it, that is what 16 years old do! But they are ADULTS and alleged PROFESSIONALS and it sickens me. If I were that parent I would be exploding. The police in Chicago should worry more about doing their jobs and then they wouldn’t have to demand money from Jussie.
Would this be the equivalent of taxpayers requesting a refund when their supported police department is found to be abusing privilege or power? I’m genuinely asking; are those fair equivalents?
I wholly believed this was staged from the beginning (just too…I dunno. It just felt off, I have no clue why) but I am still wholly against the Chicago PD. They are taking a page out of Johnny Depp’s book. F— them!
No? You don’t get reimbursed for misusing your time and resources while star humping. Even if (big big if) we were to believe that all those overtime hours were accrued while investigating what was believed to be a true crime, it’s still a gross misuse of resources. Hate crime or no, why would you mobilize so many officers for an assault? Chief Kardashian had the nerve to complain about all the time wasted on this hoax while knowing full well that they made the decision to focus in on one crime because the victim was famous and the CPD wanted the goodwill that the case brought. They star humped and got burned. That’s on them.
Have to say tho Kim Foxx is my new girl crush. Love to know her career trajectory. ie How she got where she is today. Shes powerful dresses smart & talks smarter. Love her.
It’s possible that Jussie is a lying, naricissist jerk AND the Chicago PD are racist. Both things can be true. (That is the only thing I can think of which makes any sense to me in this mess!!)