Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett will donate $50,000 to a local nonprofit organization to settle a city lawsuit that sought reimbursement for money spent during a Chicago police investigation of the infamous alleged hoax in January 2019.
The settlement resolves Smollett’s last remaining legal matter here in Chicago after the state Supreme Court in November overturned his criminal convictions and ordered the case dismissed, finding that a special prosecutor’s decision to retry him for allegedly staging a hate crime against himself violated his rights after the Cook County state’s attorney’s office previously dropped all charges.
Smollett and the city reached an agreement last month, according to court records, but the two parties have now made the terms of settlement public.
More than six years ago, Smollett told police that two men attacked him in the Streeterville neighborhood, hitting him, yelling homophobic slurs and placing a noose around his neck. His story quickly unraveled, though, according to police, and Cook County prosecutors charged Smollett with disorderly conduct for allegedly concocting the hoax with brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who testified that he paid them to perpetrate the attack.
Months later, the prosecutor’s office controversially dropped charges against Smollett, though it did not deter the city from trying to recoup $130,106 in police overtime hours expended in the investigation into his allegations. Smollett then filed a counterclaim against the city.
In a statement released on behalf of Smollett, the actor said the decision to settle was not a difficult one.
“After repeatedly refusing to pay the City, I was presented with an opportunity to make a charitable donation in exchange for the case being dismissed,” the statement said. “Despite what happened there politically, Chicago was my home for over 5 years and the people became my family.”
The donation will be made to the Building Brighter Futures Center for the Arts, an organization that provides programs and services to children.
Separate from the settlement, Smollett said he is donating $10,000 to the Chicago Torture Justice Center.
A spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Law said in a statement that the donation is in addition to the $10,000 in bail money Smollett forfeited when his charges were first dropped.
“Since the City filed its lawsuit, Smollett has faced additional accountability through the appointment of a Special Prosecutor and subsequent criminal trial, where the evidence was publicly aired and a conviction secured,” the statement said, though it noted that the conviction was overturned. “Accordingly, the City believes this settlement provides a fair, constructive, and conclusive resolution, allowing all the parties to close this six-year-old chapter and move forward.”
After the Cook County state’s attorney’s office dropped charges against Smollett, a judge assigned a special prosecutor to investigate amid the ensuing uproar.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb eventually filed new charges, and Smollett was convicted by a jury on five of six counts of disorderly conduct in December 2021. He was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and $130,160 in restitution.
The high court decision, though, nullified his conviction and sentence.
