Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson speaks during a press conference at Chicago police headquarters about the arrest of "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett on February 21, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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Here's why Chicago PD was so furious when Jussie Smollett's charges were dropped
May 31, 2019
They believe they were lied to
Newly-released documents revealed that Chicago Police thought Jussie Smollett would be forced to admit guilt as a part of the deal he struck with prosecutors to have his charges dropped, according to WBBM-TV.
The revelation explains the outrage that came from police when Smollett's felony charges for disorderly conduct were suddenly and unexplainably dropped, and Smollett was allowed to walk free while maintaining publicly that he was totally innocent of staging a hoax hate crime for attention.
From WBBM:
Documents revealed that on February 28 after Smollett was indicted, the state's attorney's office notified CPD, saying the case would be prosecuted with $10,000 in restitution, community service and admission of guilt.
But that admission of guilt never happened as charges were suddenly dropped by Kim Foxx's office nearly a month later, and Smollett walked free, blindsiding police.
Chicago PD commander Ed Wodnicki said at the time that the decision to drop the charges was a "punch in the gut." Chicago police officers dedicated significant overtime to working the case after Smollett claimed white Trump supporters assaulted him while spewing racial and sexual slurs.
"We worked closely throughout our three-week investigation to get to point where we arrested the offender," Wodnicki said, according to NBC News. "For the state's attorney at this point to dismiss charges without discussing this with us at all is just shocking."
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was also outraged.
"This is an unbelievable, not just a whitewash of justice, this is a person now who got off scot-free with no sense of accountability of the moral and ethical wrong of his actions, from top to bottom, not only besmirching the name of the city... but you have a person using hate crime laws that are on the books to protect people who are minorities from violence, to turn around and use those laws to advance your career? Is there no decency in this man?" Emanuel said.
(H/T Hot Air)
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Aaron Colen
Aaron is a former staff writer for TheBlaze. He resides in Denton, Texas, and is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in journalism and a Master of Education in adult and higher education.
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