State Attorney, Kim Foxx, have a change of mind for Jussie Smollett after calling him a 'washed up celeb.' All 16 counts of Smollet's charges were dropped after Foxx felt he had been overcharged for a misdemeanor. According to CBS2 in Chicago, Foxx sent text messages to staff expressing that taking the unruly route wouldn't be the best look. It would give grounds for Kim and her team to be known as ones who overcharge cases. She compared Smollett's case to that of celebrity singer, R. Kelly, who is under investigation on pedophile charges.
"Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops,16. On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I think its indicative of something we should be looking at generally. Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should," said Foxx
According to TMZ, once the text messages became public, Foxx released a statement,
"After the indictment became public, I reached out to Joe to discuss reviewing office policies to assure consistencies in our charging and our use of appropriate charging authority."
She continues, "I was elected to bring criminal justice reform and that includes intentionality, consistency, and discretion. I will continue to uphold these guiding principals."
It was rumored that Smollett had served community service time for his crime, but in fact he did not.
Smollett may have escaped jail time for his planned attack, but he wont be escaping a hefty fine. According to TMZ, the staged attack cost the City of Chicago $130,000 in overtime alone for investigating the case. Yet, it wants hundreds of thousands of dollars on top of that to cover attorneys fees and additional expenses. And then the city wants the judge to multiply that times 3, to punish Jussie. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago PD were also upset with the ruling to dismiss the charges.