The City of Chicago today filed a lawsuit against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett as he enjoys some vacation time in Hawaii.
Chicago said in court that Smollett owes more than $130,000 to compensate the city for the cost of police overtime as authorities investigated an incident he reported, according to the suit’s complaint, which was published in full by the Chicago Sun-Times.
“The City is entitled to recovery of the costs of necessary services provided by the City in order to provide services in investigating and responding to Defendant’s violations of the [Municipal Code of Chicago],” the complaint states.
Smollett was all smiles during a day at the beach in Hawaii as he enjoyed some down time with his family while the legal fallout from his sensational case raged on in Chicago.
The 36-year-old Empire actor was pictured laughing as he ate , talked to his sisters and unloaded a car with children’s bags and towels for a fun-filled day out.
They were spotted at the Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park in Kailua on the Big Island.
Jussie Smollett looks at his phone while waiting for his family. It is unclear if he will return to Empire or what his next acting gig will be.
Smollett told police earlier this year that he was the victim of an attack in which two men yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him and also used language in support of President Trump.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson later said that the reported crime was a hoax and that Smollett made it up “because he was dissatisfied with his salary.”
Smollett was indicted on multiple felony charges last month in connection with the alleged false report.
Prosecutors dropped the charges against him a few weeks later.
Smollett’s lawyers said after the charges were dropped that their client’s “record has been wiped clean.”
State Attorney Kim Foxx, whose office was in charge of the probe, has faced repeated calls to resign over her handling of the case.
The Chicago Police Department’s Superintendent, Eddie Johnson, was aghast when the case was dropped, as was Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
They say it sent a clear message that Smollett was favored because he has friends in high places and there was widespread public outcry over the decision too.
The police union in Chicago has passed a vote of no confidence in her and even attorneys who used to work for her and calling for her to be investigated.
Among them is Saani Mohammed who filed a petition asking for the investigation into Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx’s actions over the decision to drop the 16 felony charges against the Empire actor.
According to court documents, Mohammed, who until recently worked in Foxx’s office, wrote that a prosecutor should investigate if Foxx ‘acted to impede the investigation… concealed evidence, and/or intentionally misled the public’.
Foxx also improperly ‘used her position to intervene in the investigation’, after meeting with one of Smollett’s relatives before the charges were dropped, the filing states, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Smollett was accused of staging an attack on himself on January 29 to try to get a raise on Empire.
Police say he paid Abel and Ola Osundairo to beat him in what he then described as a racist, homophobic attack by two Trump-loving perpetrators.
Smollett’s team has never offered an alternative explanation for why the brothers, who he knew and had paid for personal training, would attack him.
One of his lawyer’s most bizarre attempts at explaining the case however was that he told police one of his attackers was white because the Nigerian brothers ‘might have been wearing white make-up’.
The brothers told police Smollett enlisted them to beat him up and that he betrayed them by then going to the police, claiming to know nothing about the incident.