Jussie Smollett & Chicago Settle Lawsuit Over Staged Hate Crime

Jussie Smollett and the city of Chicago have finally settled a civil lawsuit dating back to 2019, according to NBC News. The former Empire star was reportedly supposed to appear in court earlier this week. His attorney, however, confirmed in a docket entry that the case had been settled.

For now, further details about the settlement have yet to be revealed. Both parties say they “need more time to finalize documentation.” A status hearing has been rescheduled for May 29.

Chicago sued Smollett for $130K three months after he claimed to have been the victim of an attack in the city’s Streeterville neighborhood. In the suit, they accused him of orchestrating the attack himself and filing a false police report, thus wasting police time and money.

Smollett was arrested in February of 2019 and later indicted by a grand jury on suspicion of filing a false police report. Cook County State Attorney Kimberly Foxx eventually dropped the charges before a special prosecutor revived it. Smollett was hit with six disorderly conduct counts and later went to trial. At the end of 2021, he was found guilty of five out of the six counts. The following year, he was sentenced to 150 days behind bars and 30 months probation.

The Illinois Supreme Court overturned that conviction in November, finding that Smollett should not have been charged after he entered a nonprosecution agreement with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

“Obviously, we’re ecstatic, we’re happy,” his attorney Nenye Uche told TMZ at the time. “But really, my position is, it shouldn’t have gone this far. This prosecution was not a prosecution, it was a persecution. […] One thing I want to really emphasize here is this was not a divided court. This was a unanimous decision. […] [Smollett] was very pleasantly surprised.”