horrifying attack on Jussie Smollett

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William Parcher said:
I don't see why two detectives could not have solved the whole thing. Instead they sent out a whole herd.
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Provided you could find two honest uncorruptable detectives on the Chicago PD. A Big If. Things in that regard have not changes too much since the good old days of Al Capone and the Untouchables.
 
dudalb said:
It is really bizarre.
The mostly likely is the DA felt the evidence against Smolett was not strong enough to convict,but if this is the case why didn't the DA just say "Insufficent Evidence?'.
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If the prosecutor thought case was not strong enough they would not have put it front of a Grand Jury.
If there was new evidence the defence or prosecutor discovered after the Grand Jury - that would be the basis for the dropping of charges and would have been made public for certain.
 
William Parcher said:
This isn't actually a deal of any kind. The prosecutor simply announced the dropping of charges and the forfeit of bail money. Smollett didn't agree to anything here - though he is probably pleased with it.

Let's see if he gets cocky and sues the city of Chicago. LOL!
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Smollett agreed to forfeit his bail bond. In other words - he agreed to a deal of $10,000 for a prosecutorial diversion. Of course he is pleased with it because the case is sealed and no-one can see what a terrible thing he did.

I would suggest that the words of the mayor and police chief today are designed to entice Smollett into a civil case against them. They know his lawyers will not allow that as that will open the facts of the case to the civil court process and public.
 
Ernie M said:
Sealing the case–keeping documentation out of the public's eye–means that the circumstances, facts, and context about this case are known to only a small number of people.

How is the public to trust anyone involved? The facts have been hidden.

The legal, judicial, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies, along with Hollywood influence, need to be scrutinized.

If Jussie Smollett says he's innocent and has been truthful and consistent all along, then show the files.

Sealing this case buries the facts.
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^This^
 
William Parcher said:
I don't see why two detectives could not have solved the whole thing. Instead they sent out a whole herd.
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Your lack of knowledge and experience in investigations shows. :)
Investigations are time consuming and there was a huge amount of legwork and evidence chasing involved in this case with a big pressure to get it done fast. The only way to get it done under such political and time pressure was to throw resources at it.
 
Stacko said:
Facts are going around that Foxx recused herself from the case back in February.
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Do you think Foxx could have influenced things even with a formal recusal? Or would something make that impossible?
 
theprestige said:
Closed room deal?

I told you the whole "we want cameras in the courtroom" thing was a feint by Smollett's legal team.
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and it worked. it has you looking in the wrong direction.

Foxx reached out to Johnson after Tina Tchen, former chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama, emailed Foxx saying the actor’s family had unspecified “concerns about the investigation.” Tchen, a close friend of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s wife, said she was acting on behalf of the “Empire” actor and his family. A relative later exchanged texts with Foxx.
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https://www.chicagotribune.com/news...smollett-kim-foxx-records-20190313-story.html

Foxx ultimately recused herself from the investigation, but only after asking Chicago Police Department superintendent Eddie Johnson to turn the case over to the FBI at the behest of one of Smollett’s relatives and a former Obama administration official, according to emails and text messages obtained by the Chicago Sun Times.
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https://twitter.com/JussieSmollett/...tweetembed|twterm^965781389261070337&ref_url=
 
Cavemonster said:
Can you list some other cases where prosecutors have dropped charges this far in (aside from through plea deals)? It seems like this case has been very public for a long time and entities with the power to change the prosecutor's position had a long time before now to weigh in.
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Here's a good example:

https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2007/05/29/student-denies-gun-charges/

ALHAMBRA – An East Los Angeles College student pleaded not guilty to six weapons counts on Tuesday.

Matthew Corwin, 23, was arrested last month after students and faculty alerted authorities to pictures of Corwin holding and firing multiple firearms on a Web site.

Corwin was the Associated Student Union president at the school, and also founded a gun enthusiast’s club called Students for the Second Amendment.

He was charged with two counts of possession of an assault weapon, two counts of possession of a deadly weapon, and one count of receiving stolen property.

Corwin initially faced 12 counts of weapons possession, and of sales of illegal weapons, but six charges were dropped after investigators determined that his Browning machine .30-caliber was legal.

The weapons found at his Monterey Park home that were alleged to be illegal were an AK-47, two AR-15s, a throwing star, and a pair of sap gloves, which are leather gloves with steel in the knuckles.

Corwin’s lawyer, Chuck Michel, claims that investigators who initially believed Corwin was a threat to students on campus, now realize he is nothing more than a gun enthusiast.


He was arrested and charged in April, 2007.

As noted above, six charges were dismissed in May 2007.

It took until December 2007 for all the charges to be dropped. He only incurred a legal bill.

https://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showpost.php?p=888189&postcount=1

Dear Calgunners,

By now you will probably all have heard the good news. All of the charges in the criminal complaint against Matt have been dropped. There were twelve charges in all, six for possession or selling 1919 belt-fed firearms, three for possession of assault weapons (legally-configured OLL's), one for possession of stolen government property, and two for non-firearm "karate" weapons (shuriken and weighted gloves). As we all know, 1919's are as legal as double-barreled shotguns, so there was never really anything to charge him with there. The DA's office, in their generosity, agreed to drop those six charges pretty much right away. The "stolen" government property was Matt's all along, left over from his service in the army, and in the end the DA graciously agreed to drop that charge as well. The OLL felony charges were dropped in favor of a civil compromise, where the state confiscates the rifles but then does not charge Matt with anything that will later affect his firearms rights or his employment prospects. (More on this later, in a subsequent post.) The DA also agreed to drop the "karate" weapons charges.

Those of you who have been following the case know also that there were some very serious false accusations against Matt early in the case. Shortly after Matt was released on bail, someone at East LA College made a threat via email against ELAC and signed Matt's name to it. The LA county sheriff's department was preparing to take Matt back to jail, when TMLLP (working overtime on a weekend) was able to prove that the email was forged and to identify its author. This contributed significantly to his legal bill.

As of the dismissal, the total bill for Matt's defense was $43,300.30. That includes, of course, work done to expedite the bail process and get him out of jail, proof that the email threat was forged and the identification of the real author, and all those continuances before the DA agreed to drop the charges. (Those of you who have been following the case closely will remember that bond was set unreasonably high, and Matt languished in jail for three weeks before his grandmother could put up her house for bail.)

The calguns community came through wonderfully in support of our own. As of yesterday, TMLLP has received $27,840.00 from us towards Matt's defense. That, together with the $5,000.00 his family was able to provide, leaves an outstanding balance of $10,460.30. To all of you who have contributed already, please accept our heartfelt thanks. To those of you who have offered to contribute now, we thank you and gladly accept your generosity. Before Matt's arrest, there was much talk of what would happen if one of us were arrested, and many people promised to step up and help financially. You have proven to be men and women of your word, and I am honored to be a part of this community.

Checks for Matt's defense fund should be made payable to Trutanich-Michel Trust Fund, with "Matthew Corwin Legal Defense Fund" listed on the subject line. Mail them to

Trutanich-Michel LLP
180 E. Ocean Blvd., Ste 200
Long Beach, CA 90802

If you have questions, you can contact the firm at

Tel (562) 216-4444
Fax (562) 216-4445
www.tmllp.com

You can also make contributions through paypal. PM user 69Mach1 for details on that.
 
William Parcher said:
Smollett just got in front of a microphone and said that he has "been truthful and consistent from day one".

The thing is, everyone knows that it was a hoax and he was lying then and he is lying now. Somewhere out there, there is a pepperoni pizza that thinks he is innocent.

The prosecutors know that enough information and evidence has already been presented and leaked that Smollett is essentially doomed and will be a walking zombie for the rest of his days. His punishment is that he is known to be toxic and a great public relations risk to anyone who hires him. He will only make it worse for himself because he will continue to lie instead of apologizing for creating the big stupid hoax.

The world will get to watch a dead man walking.
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I hope so.

I think the more likely situation is that he will spin this into being a poster child for wrongly accused people, and be more famous than before.
 
sadhatter said:
I hope so.

I think the more likely situation is that he will spin this into being a poster child for wrongly accused people, and be more famous than before.
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He and O.J. Simpson can go on tour together.

I'm kinda speechless at the moment. Shocked and very disappointed. There's so much wrong with this.
 
Stacko said:
Do you have anything more than innuendo?
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I don't have anything. But lots of people are suggesting she interfered, people who are a lot more familiar with Chicago politics than I am. You suggested they're wrong because Foxx recused herself. I'm saying that her recusal doesn't prove them wrong. If that's correct, if she still could influence proceedings despite a recusal, that doesn't mean that she actually did influence proceedings. So I'm not claiming all these people are right about Foxx, merely that they can't be dismissed based on her recusal. I'm perfectly happy to acknowledge that they haven't been shown to be right, either.
 
Well somebody(s) in the prosecutor's department decided to charge him 16 times. Is that the same person(s) who decided to drop all the charges? How many cooks are in that kitchen?
 
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