Emanuel calls dropping charges against Jussie Smollett a - ‘whitewash of justice’ Posted: Mar 26th, 2019 - 1:27 pm In Reply to: All charges dropped against Jussie Smollett - Talk about privilege...
In a highly unusual decision, prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett that accused him of staging a hate-crime attack against himself — a move that Mayor Rahm Emanuel later called a “whitewash of justice.”
The actor was indicted March 8 with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly hiring two men to attack him near his Streeterville home in January. The $10,000 posted for Smollett’s bond will be turned over to the City of Chicago Law Department.
The hearing lasted less than 5 minutes. Cook County Circuit Judge Steven G. Watkins sealed the case file.
Chicago police officials said Supt. Eddie Johnson was not briefed on the decision to drop charges and learned about it in the middle of a police academy graduation ceremony scheduled at the same time State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office announced it.
A police source said Johnson was “furious” and maintained the evidence against Smollett was “rock solid.”
Later in the day, Johnson said he believed “the city is still owed an apology.”
“Do I think justice is served? No,” Johnson said. “Where do I think justice is? I think this city’s still owed an apology.”
“If you want to say that you’re innocent of a situation, then you take your day in court. . . . If someone falsely accused me, I would never hide behind a brokered deal and secrecy.”
Emanuel ripped the decision to drop charges against Smollett.
“This is without a doubt a whitewash of justice, and sends a clear message that if you’re in a position of influence and power, you’ll get treated one way, other people will be treated another way,” Emanuel said. “There is no accountability in the system. It is wrong, full stop.”
Ed Wodnicki, the 18th District police commander who oversaw the investigation, called the decision to drop the charges “a kick in the gut.”
He said the $10,000 in bond forfeited by Smollett “doesn’t come close” to covering the cost in resources and manpower to probe the heater case that drew national attention.“I think the citizens of Chicago should be upset about that,” Wodnicki said.
“We wasted time and effort on a reported serious, serious crime, to get to the point that it’s a lie? I want reimbursement. I’m a citizen in the city of Chicago. I want my money back,” he said.
“We were absolutely prepared to go to trial. We were rock solid. We were excited to have this case prosecuted,” Wodnicki said.
After the court hearing on Tuesday, Smollett said, “I want to thank the state of Illinois for attempting to do what is right.”
“I want to thank my family, friends, the incredible people of Chicago . . . who have prayed for me, who have supported me. . . . I want you to know that not for a moment was it in vain. I’ve been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one.”
“This has been an incredibly difficult time, honestly one of the worst of my entire life.”
Now he will go back and continue to “fight for the betterment of the lives of marginalized people everywhere.”
Smollett lawyer Patricia Brown Holmes said there was no deal with prosecutors.
“There is no deferred prosecution . . . The state dismissed the charges,” Holmes said. “We believe it was the correct result . . . We are very anxious for Jussie to get on with his life.”
“[Jussie] is someone who has dedicated his life to public service since he was 15 years old. He is someone who has taken the city of Chicago as his home. He is a good, solid citizen of the city of Chicago.”
First Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Magats said the decision to drop the charges should not be interpreted that Smollett did not do what police and prosecutors have alleged — pay his assailants to fake the attack and then falsely report the incident to police.
Nor did dropping the charges mean that Smollett was a victim of a crime, Magats said emphatically.
“Absolutely not. We stand behind the CPD investigation done in this case, we stand behind the approval of charges in this case,” Magats told the Sun-Times. “They did a fantastic job. The fact there was an alternative disposition in this case is not and should not be viewed as some kind of admission there was something wrong with the case, or something wrong with the investigation that the Chicago Police did.”
Magats, who became the final decision maker on the case after Foxx recused herself in mid-February, said prosecutors made the decision to drop the charges against Smollett under the same criteria they would any other defendant.
“It’s a nonviolent crime. He has no felony criminal background. If you start looking at the disposition in the case, in every case you need to look at the facts and circumstances of the case, and the defendant’s background.”
Magats noted that while there was no court-ordered community service, Smollett had been active in the community even after he was charged. Sealing records as part of deferred prosecution is common, Magats said.
Smollett on March 14 pleaded not guilty to 16 charges of disorderly conduct related to a staged hate-crime attack against himself in Streeterville.
Johnson castigated the actor during a press conference the day the charges were announced and bemoaned the many man-hours investigators spent unraveling Smollett’s account of being attacked by two men as he walked home from a sandwich shop in the early-morning hours of Jan. 29. Smollett claimed the men taunted him with racial and homophobic slurs, and tearfully defended himself in a Good Morning America interview.
Outside the courthouse, Smollett was surrounded by TV cameras and reporters as he waited for a black Cadillac SUV to pull up and take him away.
He ignored shouted questions from reporters, posed for a selfie with a fan and did not appear to react when one woman shouted:
“How do you feel, Jussie? You feel good? You look good.”
LINK/URL: Emanuel calls dropping charges against Jussie Smollett a
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