Jussie Smollett Prosecutor Blames Police Superintendent, Mayor For Charges Being Dropped

The prosecutor in the case against Jussie Smollett says in an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune that she dropped charges against the actor due in part to statements by public officials. Kim Foxx wrote a piece for the paper which said that “For a variety of reasons, including public statements made about the evidence in this case, my office believed the likelihood of securing a conviction was not certain.”

As TMZ notes, Foxx does not explain how the public statements — presumably by Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel — complicated the case for the D.A.’s office. That said, she also said in her explanation about the charges being dropped that Smollett was charged with a low-level felony, noting it is “The least serious category, which also covers things like falsely pulling a fire alarm in school and ‘draft card mutilation.'”

She continues, “These felonies are routinely resolved, particularly in cases involving suspects with no prior criminal record, long before a case ever nears a courtroom and often without either jail time or monetary penalties.” She adds, “Any law-enforcement leader or elected official not grandstanding or clouded by political expediency understands the purpose of sentencing guidelines…Yes, falsely reporting a hate crime makes me angry … [but] we must separate the people at whom we are angry from the people of whom we are afraid.”

Smollett was indicted on sixteen felony charges of filing a false police report. The charges were dropped last week.