In a bombshell announcement, all charges against Jussie Smollett were dropped by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office this morning. Jussie is claiming victory and victimhood; the mayor and the police department are seriously pissed off. Tweets on the subject, in somewhat random order: (Note that Anthony Guglielmi is the spokesman for the Chicago Police Department)
This is how the local NBC station is reporting the story:
The Chicago Police Department said it was not notified of prosecutors' decision to drop all charges against "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett and that top brass found out about the news during a graduation ceremony for recruits on Tuesday.
"Do I think justice was served? No," Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said at an impromptu news conference after the ceremony. "Where do I think justice is? I think this city is still owed an apology."
"When I came on this job, I came on with my honor, my integrity, my reputation. If someone accused me of doing anything that would circumvent that, then I would want my day in court - period - to clear my name," Johnson said.
"I've heard that they wanted their day in court with TV cameras so that America could know the truth. Now they chose to hide behind secrecy and broker a deal to circumvent the judicial system," he added.
CPD's Area Central Commander Ed Wodnicki, who headed the investigation into the alleged hate crime Smollett said he suffered in Chicago on Jan. 29, said the Cook County state's attorney's office did not inform the department of its decision to drop the charges.
"It’s a punch in the gut. It's absolutely a punch in the gut," Wodnicki said, speaking to reporters at the graduation ceremony Tuesday. Wodnicki "personally led" the "patient and deliberate investigation" into Smollett's claim of an attack, and then Smollett himself, Johnson said at a Feb. 21 news conference announcing a felony charge of disorderly conduct against the actor.
Then on Mar. 8, a Cook County grand jury indicted Smollett on 16 felony counts in connection with his reporting of the alleged attack, which police claimed he staged against himself because he was "dissatisfied with his salary."
"We worked closely throughout our three-week investigation to get to the point where we arrested the offender," Wodnicki said Tuesday, adding, "For the state's attorney at this point to dismiss charges without discussing this with us at all is just shocking."
In an earlier statement on the charges being dropped, the Cook County state's attorney's office said, “After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollet’s volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case."
But Wodnicki disagreed, saying Chicago's "citizens should be angry."
"We've got more than $10,000 invested in this investigation," he said, adding, "We wasted time and effort on a serious reported crime."
Wodnicki also said the department was prepared for the case against Smollett to go to trial.
"We have a rock-solid case, as the superintendent said in the initial press conference. We have overwhelming evidence," he said. "I've been doing this for 35 years, believe me, this investigation is solid."
"This is a slap in our face," Wodnicki continued, speaking on the state's attorney's office failure to notify police. "They weren’t courteous to give us a heads up."
State's Attorney Kim Foxx recused herself from the case in February, with documents obtained earlier this month via Freedom of Information Act request showing that Foxx had asked Johnson to turn the investigation over to the FBI.
Jussie got the spotlight he wanted and he's no longer in legal jeopardy but I bet that deep in his soul he's wishing he had never put this plan in motion. (Yes, I still believe he orchestrated a hoax.) In my first post about all this (read it
here,) I said that Jussie didn't fully anticipate the consequences of his choices. I'm having similar thoughts today. When he agreed to today's deal, whatever it was, did he anticipate that the Mayor and the Police Superintendent would continue to insist, loudly, that he did indeed fabricate his story? Without a specific and credible explanation for why the charges were dropped the whole thing just looks fishy and that's not good for Jussie. He's famous now but my guess is that his career will never recover. Stay tuned.
Update: Mayor Rahm Emanuel
really isn't happy:
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel cast doubt on the state's actions, saying it was "not on the level."
"From top to bottom, this is not on the level ... It's not on the level, but I also want to say I want to emphasize what the superintendent just said. At the end of the day, it's Mr. Smollett that committed this false claim upon two individuals and who also testified, but also on the city. One action, yes, we're looking at the state's attorney. It's not on the level from beginning to end and there needs to be a level of accountability throughout the system, and this sends an ambiguous message that there is no accountability and that is wrong," he said. From CNN's coverage, read more here.
Update #2. More from CNN, about Jussie's career prospects going forward and note that this is not political scientist Jonathan Bernstein, who I quote here frequently:
Jonathan Bernstein, author and president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., told CNN Tuesday that while the investigation won't end Smollett's career, the spectre of it will linger.
"He's always going to be associated with Jussie Smollett, the guy who may or may not set up his own mugging," Bernstein said. "I don't think the police dropping charges is enough because of the way this happened."
Bernstein said that because of the high profile nature of the case, both prosecutors and Smollett need to be completely transparent about everything that happened, including the decision to drop all charges.
"The court of public opinion is still going to want to hear an explanation about why, specifically, charges were dropped," Bernstein said. "There's a difference between dropping charges because there's absolutely no basis for them and dropping charges because there is insufficient evidence."
David E. Johnson, chief executive officer of Strategic Vision PR Group, said for Smollett to "fully recover," he needed prosecutors to say he was "vindicated 100%."
If Smollett was his client, Johnson said he would advise "a gradual reintroduction" to the public and "a hard hitting one-on-one interview."
Johnson suggested Smollett should do another interview with ABC's Robin Roberts to clear the air.
"If you looked at her comments [after their initial interview], it felt like she might have been burned by him so it's going to be a harder interview," Johnson said of another potential interview. "The focus, the glare on both of them is going to be a lot more intense then with someone else." (Read more here.)
Update #3. Tandra Simonton is the Chief Communications Officer for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. Brad Edwards is a news reporter for the local CBS station:
I'm not sure why the complete statement doesn't show up in the tweet directly above, but this is what the second sentence says: "We stand by the Chicago Police Department's investigation and our approval of charges." Whatever the reasons for dropping the charges, it's not because they think Jussie is innocent.
Again: "We stand by our approval of charges," in other words, we still believe he's guilty of what we charged him with, but we're letting him completely off the hook anyway. Wow. There's got to be more to this story. Did the State's Attorney's Office anticipate the "they let him off the hook because he's a celebrity" backlash? It doesn't look that way.
David Axelrod weighs in:
And one more time, Jussie Smollett has
not been exonerated:
Update #4. More details from ABC News:
The unanticipated development shocked Chicago, and prompted angry reactions from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who each reiterated their belief that the incident was a hoax -- with Emanuel wondering aloud, "Is there no decency in this man?"
The duo went on to accuse to 'Empire' actor of receiving preferential treatment by the Illinois State Attorney's Office.
"This is without a doubt a whitewash of justice," Emanuel said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. "There is no accountability. It is wrong, full stop."
Johnson said he was surprised to learn of the decision to drop charges against Smollett while attending a police academy graduation with Mayor Emanuel.
A furious Johnson said prosecutors brokered a deal with Smollett in secrecy.
"I'm sure we all know what happened this morning," Johnson said at his press conference. "Do I think justice was served? No. What do I think justice is? I think this city is owed an apology."
"At the end of the day, it's Mr. Smollett who committed this hoax, period," Johnson said. "I heard that they wanted their day in court ... so America could know the truth, and they chose to hide behind a secrecy of a brokered deal to circumvent the judicial system."
Johnson said that he and Emanuel only learned about the charges being dropped when it was announced publicly.
"We found about it when you all did," Johnson said of the lack of notice from the State's Attorney Office regarding the dropped charges. "I'm sure we'll have some conversation after this. But again at the end of the day Mr. Smollett committed this hoax."
Emanuel noted that "a sliver" of the evidence was presented to a grand jury, which indicted Smollett. He said Smollett used race and privilege to "get off scott free" and that the actor has shown no remorse or accountability for his actions.
“A person using hate crime laws that are on the books to protect people who are minorities, and you turn around and use them to advance your career?" Emmanuel said. "Is there no decency in this man?"
In a subsequent interview with ABC News Chicago station WLS, the prosecutor who dropped the charges against Smollett told ABC News station WLS that he believes Smollett made a false report about being attacked, but decided to drop the charges anyway.
“We stand behind the investigation and the facts revealed,” said Joe Magats, the first assistant state attorney who took over the case when his boss, State Attorney Kim Foxx, recused herself from the probe after it surfaced that she had been in touch with Smollett’s family.
In fact, according to text messages obtained by the Chicago Tribune, Foxx reached out to Johnson and asked him to turn the probe over to the FBI -- though the police department ultimately completed the investigation independently.
“We believe he did was he was charged with what he was doing.” Asked again whether he believes Smollett fabricated the incident, he replied, “yes.”
“This was not an exoneration. To say that he was exonerated by us or anyone is not true.”
In answer to questions about the dropping of the charges, Magats initially suggested that it was a question of resources, and that he decided to drop the charges after determining
“Our goal and our #1 priority is combatting violent crime and the drivers of violence and we look to our resources to do that and I don’t think that Mr. Smollett is a driver of violence or a violent individual.”
Magats also said that he was satisfied with Smollett forfeiting the 10 percent of $100K bond he put up, and completing community service prior to getting the charges dropped.
“In return for forfeiting his bond to the City of Chicago and doing his community service, we agreed to dismiss the charges against him. He did community service for Operation Push.” (Read more here.)
As you can tell by how long this post is, I've been mesmerized as I watched this story play out all afternoon. As I ponder what's happened I come back to this: Jussie Smollett still isn't the smartest tool in the box. (I first said it in a Guessing Game post on February 18. Read it here.) He clearly didn't understand that "all charges are dropped" isn't the same thing as "Jussie is innocent." Rather than simply thanking everyone for their assistance, during his on-camera statement this afternoon, he continued to insist that he's innocent and a victim. That caused both the Mayor and the Police Superintendent to come out swinging, reiterating their belief that, based on a tsunami of evidence, he did indeed perpetrate a hoax. Even the prosecutor who made the decision to drop the charges was compelled to state, repeatedly and explicitly, that Jussie was not exonerated. Jussie's legal troubles may be over but his reputation and career prospects have clearly not been restored.
Update #5. About that "community service":
Update #6. Here it is, straight from the decision-maker himself, no waffling, no wiggle-room:
Question from reporter: "Do you believe that he is innocent?"
Answer: "I do not believe that he is innocent."
Question: "So you believe he's guilty?"
Answer: "Yes."
Update #7. Even the so-called community service is controversial. Rainbow PUSH says that "There was no court-ordered community service here":
Update #8, on Wednesday morning. This story is still big news, including the lead story at CNN.com. In an article titled "Why Did Prosecutors Drop All Charges Against Jussie Smollett?" a variety of experts ponder how this happened. It ends with this:
The secrecy surrounding the details of the sudden dismissal of Smollett's charges has left some people calling for greater transparency from the prosecutors office and has led to speculation.
A judge agreed to seal Smollett's court file at the request of his attorneys and without the opposition from prosecutors.
[Police Superintendent Eddie] Johnson, who had expressed his disappointment over the dismissal, criticized the move suggesting that defense attorneys brokered a deal to "circumvent the judicial system."
"Nothing has changed other than the fact that this guy got to the state's attorney's office somehow and they worked out a back door deal that threw the mayor and the police department under the bus. Period," said Former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey, agreeing with Johnson.
Other legal analysts said the decision to keep the records from public disclosure will stop the community from learning what really happened.
"We have a right as the American people to know why these charges were dropped. If Jussie is telling the truth, we should know that," said civil rights attorney Areva Martin.
Others like Cheryl Dorsey, a retired Los Angeles Police Department sergeant, said the truth may come another way.
"We'll know that this thing that the police are saying is true when Jussie's great, great legal team doesn't sue Chicago PD for defamation or slander," she said. (Read more here.)
Jussie Smollett is famous now, but not in the way he wanted to be. Will he sue the Chicago Police Department? My guess is no.
