It turns out that Chicago police and Mayor Rahm Emanuel aren’t the only ones upset about how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx handled the Jussie Smollett case. One of her own prosecutors is livid, to the extent that they penned an anonymous piece that excoriated Foxx for her recent public statements.
“The State’s Attorney’s Office (SAO) is an international laughingstock, as politicians, comedians, scholars, legal pundits and regular ol’ citizens alike blast its handling of the case against Jussie Smollett,” the author said in the piece first published by CWB Chicago.
After Smollett claimed to have been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack, he was accused of staging the whole thing and faced 16 felony counts for allegedly filing a false report. Foxx’s office suddenly dismissed the case without much of an explanation.
The anonymous author, who identified themselves as being a white 15-year veteran of the State’s Attorney’s Office, began the piece by describing the history of racial troubles in Chicago, then criticized Foxx for bringing race into the discussion of the aftermath of the Smollett case’s dismissal.
The piece focused on Foxx’s appearance at a Rainbow PUSH coalition meeting. “She says ‘the goal posts change’ when an African American takes the position of head prosecutor, seemingly calling the critique of the SAO’s handling of the Smollett case racially based and derogatory toward her people,” the prosecutor said. The author then called out Foxx by saying she “refused to speak out” when others at the meeting leveled accusations against Chicago police that included calling them the “blue klux klan.”
Playing on actual racial division in the city’s history was not the appropriate path to take, the author asserted, saying, “It isn’t about race, it’s about basic legal ethics. And it should not have anything to do with that sordid history.”
In discussing how Foxx appeared to chalk up the backlash to the Smollett case to racism, the prosecutor said, “That is just ignorant and self-serving.”
The reality, the prosecutor wrote, is that the handling of Smollett’s case was puzzling and outside the norms for how a case like this would normally be handled.
“The anticipated outcome was a reduced sentence, a misdemeanor with some community service or restitution,” the author said. “This would have been done on the record, on a regularly scheduled court date, with the Chicago Police being notified, since they are the ‘victim’ in a disorderly conduct of this nature.”
Instead, the case was dismissed outright—without notifying the cops—based on the apparent agreement by Smollett to forfeit $10,000 in bond money and doing some sort of community service, which is typically done as a sentence, not voluntarily.
“This case was handled markedly different from any other case,” the author said.
[Image via Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images]
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