Jussie Smollett didn’t pay the $130K ‘fine’ so now Chicago is suing him

Yesterday was the deadline which was “imposed” on Jussie Smollett to pay the city of Chicago. Shortly after the state’s attorney dropped all 16 charges against Smollett, Mayor Rahm Emanuel freaked out on-camera and then orchestrated a letter demanding that Jussie “pay back” the city for the cost of investigating a falsely reported crime. The issue is that Jussie was not found guilty of staging an assault or filing a false police report or any of that. He wasn’t found guilty, he did not take a plea deal and he never even made a verbal or written admission. A city can’t bill someone from a crime which has never been proven. So, yeah, Jussie didn’t pay the $130K.

Not backing down. Jussie Smollett does not intend to reimburse the city of Chicago for the expenses incurred during the investigation into his alleged attack, a source close to the actor reveals exclusively to Us Weekly. The Empire star, 36, has “no plans on paying investigative costs being outrageously demanded,” the insider tells Us. Instead, the source suggests that “the Chicago Police Department should be investigating the way this matter was mishandled from the beginning.”

Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel ordered Smollett to pay more than $130,000 to the city by Thursday, April 4. The move came after prosecutors dropped all 16 charges against the singer.

[From Us Weekly]

So what happens now? Chicago is going to sue him now that the deadline has passed. A spokesperson for the city announced this:

“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 spokesperson of the Midwestern metropolis said Thursday as it became EOD in Chicago. “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 L.A. based legal team.”

[From Deadline]

Again, he wasn’t convicted of anything, he didn’t take a plea and he never made an admission. I realize the City of Chicago believes they are their own little fiefdom of self-perpetuating corruption, brutality, violence and payouts, but surely they have no real legal leg to stand on? Perhaps the point isn’t really that they want to get money out of Jussie, it’s that they feel like they have to be seen doing something, so they’re going to waste more money trying to “punish” him somehow.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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