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City of Chicago sues Jussie Smollett after he refuses to repay costs of police investigation

Jussie Smollett (Credit: AP)
Jussie Smollett (Credit: AP)

The city of Chicago is all set to sue Empire star Jussie Smollett to recover the $130,000 costs of the investigation into the alleged hate crime he reported to police.

Smollett was accused of faking a racially motivated attack and reporting it to the police in January, but despite being charged by police over the incident, last week all 16 charges against him were dropped.

Read more: Jussie Smollett attack lampooned on SNL

The city then demanded that Smollett pay the costs of the investigation, $130,106.15 in all, and gave him one week to do so.

But the deadline expired yesterday, and now authorities are taking legal action.

“Mr. Smollett has refused to reimburse the City of Chicago for the cost of police overtime spent investigating his false police report on Jan. 29, 2019,” read a statement.

Read more: Jussie Smollett attack – what really happened?

“The Law Department is now drafting a civil complaint that will be filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County… The Law Department will file the suit in the near future. As part of this legal action, the Law Department will pursue the full measure of damages allowed under the ordinance.”

Smollett has denied that he staged the attack.

But police charged him, saying that he paid his personal trainer and his brother to attack him, and that he did so because he was seeking a pay rise from the makers of Empire.

Despite the findings of the investigation, the State’s Attorney’s office decided to drop the charges, citing that the crime wasn’t serious enough to warrant jail time.