Three days after the shocking announcement that all 16 felony counts had been dropped against Jussie Smollett, the city of Chicago is now reportedly demanding the disgraced “Empire” actor pay roughly $130,000 in reimbursements for the cost of investigating the “hate crime” police say he staged against himself.
The city of Chicago wants $130,106.15 in the next seven days from actor Jussie Smollett, to cover the cost of the investigation into claims he was attacked in what he described to police investigators as a possible hate crime.
In a letter sent to Smollett in care of his attorneys, the city's corporation counsel says if Smollett doesn't pay, the city might prosecute him using Chicago's municipal code or other legal remedies.
CNN adds that the letter states a full two-dozen police personnel worked the Smollett case, using up valuable resources in the already crime-ridden Windy City.
The demand is just the latest in a fast-paced (and increasingly strange) back-and-forth between the city and Smollett’s attorneys, who’ve publicly maintained that their client is innocent of the charges he’d faced.
Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx – who’s facing a slew of accusations herself, including that she tried to illegally tamper with the investigation on behalf of Smollett’s family and that she lied about having previously recused herself from the case – announced Tuesday that the city would be dropping all 16 felony counts against Smollett and wiping his records clean, reportedly because the actor agreed to forfeit his $10,000 bond and had done fewer than 20 hours of community service.
But city officials, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, say that’s not enough.
It’s unlikely that the city will see the money anytime soon if at all, given that Smollett’s attorneys are still demanding the city’s top officials apologize to their client, instead.
"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," Smollett’s attorneys told CNN. "Jussie has paid enough."