City sues 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett over costs of police work despite dismissal of charges

The City of Chicago on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Jussie Smollett in a bid to recover the cost of investigating a racist, anti-gay attack that authorities say was staged by the “Empire” actor as a publicity stunt.

ABC News obtained a copy of the lawsuit Thursday, released by the Chicago Department of Law.

“The Law Department has filed a civil complaint against Mr. Smollett in the Circuit Court of Cook County that pursues the full measure of damages allowed under the false statements ordinance,” said the accompanying statement by spokesperson Bill McCaffrey.  “This follows his refusal to reimburse the City of Chicago for the cost of police overtime spent investigating his false police report on January 29, 2019.”

The suit presents a detailed timeline of the investigation and the evidence gathered, beginning with Smollett’s initial friendship in 2017 with the Osundairo brothers, who claim they helped stage the attack at Smollett’s instruction.  But Smollett whose 16 felony charges for allegedly staging the attack were dropped, has continued to insist he didn’t stage the attack and that he’s been truthful in his statements to investigators.

“[T]he CPD expended significant resources investigating Defendant’s false report of a high-profile hate crime and physical assault,” the suit declares. “Over two dozen CPD officers and detectives participated in the investigation, ultimately spending weeks investigating Defendant’s false statements. During the course of CPD’s investigation into Defendant’s false statements, CPD has incurred 1,836 overtime hours, which resulted in the City paying $130,106.15 in overtime pay as result of Defendant’s false statements.”

This comes the City of Chicago asked Smollett on March 28 to reimburse them the $130,106.15 and threatened to sue if he didn’t.  On April 4, the Law Department announced that Smollett had refused, which led them to take further action.

In a letter to the Department of Law obtained by ABC News April 5, Smollett’s attorney, Mark Geragos, wrote, “Your unprecedented attempt to file a civil lawsuit against Mr. Smollett charging him…for ‘repayment of investigation costs’ is unconstitutional.”  The letter also claimed the collection attempt was “part of a course of conduct intended to harass and irreparably injure Mr. Smollett…[he] will not be intimated into paying the demanded sum.”