Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett suffered a major setback on Friday. A Cook County judge shot down Smollett’s attempt to have charges of disorderly conduct dismissed because of double jeopardy laws. He appeared in court by video conference on Friday.
Judge Tosses Out Smollett’s Double Jeopardy Claim
Yahoo News reported that Smollett’s lawyers had been trying to use double jeopardy laws, which state that a person can’t be tried twice for the same crime, to dismantle the special prosecutor’s six-count indictment on charges related to the actor allegedly staging a hate crime against himself.
Judge James Linn told Smollett’s team that double jeopardy laws would only apply if he had already been legally punished for staging the January of 2019 incident.
Instead, the state’s attorney’s office gave Smollett a deal in which they dropped all charges against him without him having to admit any wrongdoing. And, he only had to forfeit his $10,000 bond.
RELATED: Jussie Smollett Shamelessly Tries To Use George Floyd Protests As Leverage In Chicago Legal Battle
Linn said that this deal did not constitute a legal punishment that would bring double jeopardy laws into play.
“There was no trial in this case, there was no jury empaneled, no witnesses were sworn, no evidence was heard, no guilty pleas were ever entered … nothing like that every happened,” the judge said of the 2019 case. “There was no adjudication of this case.”
Smollett’s Initial Claims
Smollett had claimed that he was jumped by two men in January of 2019 who hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him while also shouting “this is MAGA country.”
After investigating the incident, police concluded that Smollett was lying. And, that he had paid two friends $3,500 to help him stage the attack because he was unhappy with his salary on “Empire.”
There was mass outrage from Americans everywhere when prosecutors inexplicably dropped all charges against Smollett months later.
Last August, a judge appointed former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb to take a look into why the charges were dropped. However, Smollett was indicted by a grand jury on six counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly lying to police about being the victim.
RELATED: Jussie Smollett Just Had A Bad Day In Court – Federal Judge Tosses Out His Counter Lawsuit
Other Legal Case
Smollett is also involved in a separate legal battle against the city of Chicago. That case is seeking more than $130,000 for overtime paid to officers who were involved in investigating his claims. A judge dismissed the counter lawsuit he filed as well.
Smollett shamelessly tried to play off of the racial and political tensions in this country right now for his own political gain. He deserves to be punished for that by the fullest extent of the law.
We’re glad to see that a judge has tossed out his ridiculous attempts to dodge his latest charges. Looks like Smollett will have the book thrown at him as this case goes forward.
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