Smollett lawyers say he shouldn’t pay city because he didn’t know the costs
The lawyers for former Empire actor Jussie Smollett have filed a motion arguing that he shouldn’t have to pay the city for the police investigation because he didn’t know how much time and money the department would devote to his report.
His lawyers filed the motion this week, which maintains Smollett’s innocence in staging the hate crime against himself as the police department has alleged, according to the Associated Press.
The Chicago Police Department decided to sue Smollett for $130,000 over his refusal to reimburse the city for the overtime payments made to officers who were investigating the alleged hate crime.
The police department devoted 1,836 hours of police overtime and “untold hours of non-overtime police work” following Smollett’s report.
The motion claims that the “filing of a police report, in and of itself, does not necessitate a sprawling investigation nor does it, as a practical matter, usually result in an investigation as extensive as the one the CPD chose to undertake in this case.” Smollett’s lawyers also point out that a police report only enables “the police and prosecutors to decide whether and how to investigate.”
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, “Whether it’s Chicago or any other U.S. city, when he reported a vicious hate crime it was going to be investigated at the highest level of vigor and detail.”
The motion is the most recent development in the Smollett saga that began back in January. After contending that Smollett staged the attack to further his career, the Chicago Police Department filed criminal charges against the actor. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office decided to dismiss those charges back in March, while a special prosecutor was appointed last month.
Article via WashingtonExaminer