Jussie Smollett Charges Were Dropped Because Conviction Was Uncertain, Prosecutor Says

The prosecutor who dropped disorderly conduct charges against the actor Jussie Smollett defended the decision, saying her office was uncertain it had enough evidence to gain a conviction and wanted to focus on bigger crime in Chicago, she wrote in an op-ed.

The prosecutor, Kim Foxx, the Cook County state’s attorney, wrote in an op-ed in The Chicago Tribune on Friday that she welcomed an “outside, nonpolitical review of how we handled this matter.”

The case involved Mr. Smollett, a star of the television show “Empire,” who claimed he was a victim of a hate crime in Chicago. Mr. Smollett, who is black and gay, told the authorities that he was attacked in January by two men who yelled homophobic and racial slurs at him, tied a rope around his neck and poured a chemical substance on him.

[Read about key questions in the Jussie Smollett case.]

Nearly a month later, he was arrested by the police, who maintained he had staged the assault and falsely reported it. Initially there was an outpouring of support for Mr. Smollett but as the story turned, so did public sentiment. Mr. Smollett, who denied the allegations, was charged with 16 counts of disorderly conduct but on Tuesday the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped all of the charges.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/us/kim-foxx-chicago-smollett.html?partner=rss&emc=rss