CHICAGO : Officials in Chicago slammed a decision to drop all criminal charges against US television actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of fabricating a racist and homophobic hate crime. In a move that caught the city's police chief and mayor by surprise, prosecutors...
Chicago's police chief and mayor, both visibly angry, denounced the decision to drop the case and Smollett's insistence of his innocence.
"This is a whitewash of justice," Mayor Rahm Emanuel told a hastily-arranged news conference, stressing that a jury had issued the 16-count indictment after viewing only part of the evidence. "Mr Smollett is still saying that he is innocent, still running down the Chicago Police Department," the mayor added."How dare he?"It did not clarify whether prosecutors had changed their view on Smollett's culpability, or if they had simply decided that it was not in the public interest to try the case.
"After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr Smollett's volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the city of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case," the city prosecutor's office said in a statement.
But the star was already written out of the last two episodes of the most recent season of the TV series Empire amid uproar over the accusations against him.The show's producers said on Tuesday they were"gratified that all charges against him have been dismissed", but would not comment on whether he would return to the show.
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