On August 26, a statement was released in court that stated “This lawsuit seeks to recover costs that Plaintiff City of Chicago (“City”) incurred because Defendant Jussie Smollett lied when he told Chicago Police Department officers that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack.”
On January 29, Smollett told police that he was attacked by two men in Chicago who threw racial slurs at him. The men were later identified as siblings Olabinjo Osundairo and Abimbola Osundairo – Abimbola trained Smollett for his upcoming music video, “Don’t Go.”
Charges were made against Smollett for disorderly conduct by the class four false report allegation and on 16 felony counts for allegedly lying to law enforcement about the attack. In March, those criminal charges were dropped by the state’s attorney.
Smollett was brought into federal court for a lawsuit that demands the former Empire actor to pay the Chicago Police Department $130,000 for overtime costs and $260,000 in damages. Renai Rodney and Eli T. Zenner of the City of Chicago Department of Law stated, “Indeed, the entire purpose of submitting a police report is to cause police to investigate the report. The CPD investigation and commensurate costs were therefore the natural and foreseeable result of Defendant’s claim that he was the victim of a heinous hate crime.”
Smollett’s attorneys filed motion to have the lawsuit dismissed under the claim that Smollett wasn’t aware of the costs and time of the police throughout the investigation. He also did not know how much of an extensive investigation this would turn out to be. The U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall denied Smollett’s request to dismiss the lawsuit in court on Tuesday.
“The natural, ordinary and reasonable consequence of a police report like this one — a racist, homophobic physical assault in which masked attackers invoked the President of the United States’ official campaign slogan — is an intensive, sprawling investigation like the one that took place,” Kendall wrote. “Smollett contends that police overtime pay is not ‘foreseeable in the normal course of events,’ but this is hardly the normal course of events — most crime victims, for instance, do not have the opportunity to discuss the crime on ‘Good Morning America.’ The allegations were taken seriously by the Chicago Police Department in significant part due to the high profile of the claimant and the extreme nature of the accusations.”
Smollett’s attorney, William J. Quinlan said, “Mr. Smollett has always maintained his innocence and is eager to have the complete facts of the case come out. He looks forward to taking depositions and otherwise bringing to light many of the facts that have been overlooked in the court of public opinion to date. Mr. Smollett is confident that once the full story is available he will be vindicated.”