Posted on April 5, 2019

Chicago to File Civil Suit Against ‘Empire’ Actor for Not Paying $130K Cost of Police Investigation

KTRK, April 4, 2019

“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has refused to pay the city of Chicago more than $130,000 for the cost of investigating his reported hate crime, the city’s law department said Thursday.

Last week, the city sent Smollett a letter demanding the payment for what it cost police to investigate his alleged attack. The letter said he must pay within seven days, but didn’t say what would happen if he didn’t.

The city’s law department said it is now drafting a civil complaint that will be filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County in the near future. The city said it will pursue the full measure of damages allowed under the ordinance.

The money the city requested is separate from the $10,000 bond that Smollett forfeited as a condition of the charges against him being dropped.

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“Given that he doesn’t feel any sense of contrition and remorse, my recommendation is that when he writes the check, in the memo section, he can put the words, ‘I’m accountable for the hoax,'” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said last week.

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Smollett’s legal team fired back at Emanuel’s comments, issuing a statement saying, “It is the Mayor and the Police Chief who owe Jussie — owe him an apology — for dragging an innocent man’s character through the mud. Jussie has paid enough.”

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