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Jussie Smollett took another hit in court on Wednesday when a federal judge tossed his malicious prosecution lawsuit against the city of Chicago and several police officers.
Attorneys for the former “Empire” star, 37, filed the suit in November 2019, after the city of Chicago sued him for $130,000, seeking reimbursement for the overtime to police officers who were involved in investigating the alleged racist and homophobic attack on Smollett back in January 2019.
The countersuit in November claimed that Smollett was the victim of a malicious prosecution that caused humiliation and extreme distress.
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Jussie Smollett. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
The judge, U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, said that Smollett could not file a malicious prosecution claim until after all of the proceedings against him — including his February 2020 indictment on six counts for allegedly lying to police about the attack — have ended.
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Kendall said that the Chicago Police Department was motivated to bring Smollett to justice “for a crime it had probable cause to think he committed.”
Jussie Smollett’s malicious prosecution lawsuit has been dismissed.(AP Photo/Paul Beaty, File)
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In January of 2019, Smollett claimed that he, an openly gay black man, was attacked in Chicago by two masked men who beat him, tied a rope around his neck and taunted him with racist and homophobic slurs.
Chicago police said the attack was staged, and Smollett was charged with making a false report. Those original charges were subsequently dropped with little explanation from prosecutors.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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