BREAKING NEWS – Prosecutors Drop All Charges Against Jussie Smollett!
Written by MaxFM on March 27, 2019
According to PEOPLE, Jussie Smollett and his legal team were in court on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, where the charges levelled against him were dropped. His lawyers in their statement said Jussie Smollett has been vilified from all the accusations levelled against him.
“Today, all criminal charges against Jussie Smollett were dropped and his record has been wiped clean of the filing of this tragic complaint against him. Jussie was attacked by 2 people he was unable to identify on January 29th. He was a victim who was vilified and made to appear as a perpetrator as a result of false and inappropriate remarks made to the public, causing an inappropriate rush to judgment.”
“Jussie and many others were hurt by these unfair and unwarranted actions. This entire situation is a reminder that there should never be an attempt to prove a case in the court of public opinion. That is wrong. It is a reminder that a victim, in this case, Jussie, deserves dignity and respect. Dismissal of charges against the victim, in this case, was the only just result,” he said.
It would be recalled that Jussie Smollett pleaded not guilty, to all the charges that were levelled against him boarding on lying to the police on his attack.
Although prosecutors have dropped charges against Jussie Smollett after he was indicted on 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly staging a hate crime against himself in January, Smollett has not been exonerated of the alleged conduct, nor does this mean there will be no further criminal charges brought against the Empire actor.
According to PEOPLE, an LA-based criminal defense attorney Alaleh Kamran, who is not associated with the case, says that the dropped charges do not mean Smollett is innocent or exonerated.
“Exoneration means there was a finding of factual innocence and usually that’s done after a hearing in front of a judge with the victims and the witnesses,” she explains.
“There’s testimony, and then the judge makes a finding that this person was innocent and should not have been arrested – that’s what exoneration means.”
She adds: “I think what happened is the prosecutor could not prove its case and they decided to cut their losses short right now before going any further and getting egg on their faces,” she says.
Kamran had say the situation is “highly unusual” given the public scrutiny of the case and expects to see civil lawsuits filed very soon.
“At this point all that’s happened is the state is telling us they’re not going to prosecute him on criminal charges, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be civil lawsuits going both ways. Jussie can sue the complaining witnesses, the complaining witnesses can sue him,” she explains.
“I’m sure there will be lawsuits because there’s damages. Jussie’s career has been destroyed, his name and reputation has been dragged through the mud, I would be surprised if he does not pull some kind of civil action to, at the minimum, clear his name.”
