04-12-2019, 12:33 PM
This is such a weird case.
Smollett never struck me as credible in his demeanor or his claims and I think he did a real disservice to true victims of hate crimes.
But, I don't care that the District Attorney dropped the false complaint charges after two days of community service and forfeiture of his $10,000 bail IF that would be similar to the penalty given to any other suspect for the same crime. I don't think celebrities should be given any harsher or lesser penalties than anyone else.
I do, however, believe that his celebrity status and the resulting publicity likely forced Chicago PD to dedicate more time and resources than they would have had the self-proclaimed victim not been in the public eye.
So, if Smollett was in fact lying, I hope the City of Chicago wins the civil case it just filed against him.
Snip:
The city of Chicago previously gave Smollett seven days to repay $130,106.15 bill stemming from the 1,836 overtime hours the police spent investigating the January 29th attack. At the time, the city of Chicago claims in its civil complaint, Smollett misled investigators by saying his attackers were white and staging the incident as a hate crime.
When Smollett, as expected, declined to reimburse the police department, the city filed the civil complaint, with the city also asking for a jury trial to determine Smollett’s damages. Under a current city code, Smollett could face more than $390,000 in damages as well as a $1,000 penalty for every false claim he told police. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/cul...tt-821432/
Smollett never struck me as credible in his demeanor or his claims and I think he did a real disservice to true victims of hate crimes.
But, I don't care that the District Attorney dropped the false complaint charges after two days of community service and forfeiture of his $10,000 bail IF that would be similar to the penalty given to any other suspect for the same crime. I don't think celebrities should be given any harsher or lesser penalties than anyone else.
I do, however, believe that his celebrity status and the resulting publicity likely forced Chicago PD to dedicate more time and resources than they would have had the self-proclaimed victim not been in the public eye.
So, if Smollett was in fact lying, I hope the City of Chicago wins the civil case it just filed against him.
Snip:
The city of Chicago previously gave Smollett seven days to repay $130,106.15 bill stemming from the 1,836 overtime hours the police spent investigating the January 29th attack. At the time, the city of Chicago claims in its civil complaint, Smollett misled investigators by saying his attackers were white and staging the incident as a hate crime.
When Smollett, as expected, declined to reimburse the police department, the city filed the civil complaint, with the city also asking for a jury trial to determine Smollett’s damages. Under a current city code, Smollett could face more than $390,000 in damages as well as a $1,000 penalty for every false claim he told police. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/cul...tt-821432/