The ex-”Empire’’ actor’s latest court filing, while not admitting he staged the incident, pins the decision to spend so much time and resources investigating squarely on law enforcement.
Chicago Sun Times reporter Michael Sneed learned exclusively that late Tuesday night, his attorneys filed a motion responding to the city’s claim that he should pay the city more than $130,000 to cover police overtime and other costs. The city says the costs were incurred in connection with an investigation into a report he filed claiming he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in River North...
...the latest court filing contends even if Smollett did make a false report, there is no way the city can assert he would have known the city would investigate — and investigate it to the extent cops did.
“We contend the city is wrong,” William J. Quinlan, of The Quinlan Law Firm, said of the city’s assertion that Smollett should have known the police would log nearly 2,000 hours in overtime trying to resolve the case. “ ... The mere fact somebody filed a police report doesn’t presume the investigation will be done and certainly not to the extent of what the city is claiming.”
He added: “Smollett has no control over that.”
In the legal brief, obtained by Sneed, Smollett makes clear that he “disputes any and all assertions that he made a false statement and was not a victim of a crime.”
But even if he did, “The filing of a police report, in and of itself, does not necessitate a sprawling investigation nor does it, as a practical matter, usually result in an investigation as extensive as the one the CPD chose to undertake in this case,” the motion says.
It goes on to say the city “has failed to allege that Mr. Smollett was similarly ‘well aware’ that his statements to police would result in 1,836 hours of police overtime, or any other reasons why he should have known this would have been the case.”...