(12 Feb 2020) Actor Jussie Smollett was indicted Tuesday for a second time on charges of lying to police about a racist and anti-gay attack he allegedly staged on himself in downtown Chicago, renewing a divisive criminal case that drew worldwide attention last year. The indictment came from a special prosecutor who was appointed after Cook County prosecutors dropped the same charges last March.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb said in a statement that Smollett faces six felony counts of disorderly conduct, charges that stem from four separate false reports that he gave to police in which he contended he was a victim of a hate crime "knowing that he was not the victim of a crime."
The statement immediately raised questions about county prosecutors' decision to drop the charges and made it clear that those prosecutors had not adequately explained to special prosecutors why they did so. But Webb stressed that he had reached no conclusions about whether anyone involved in the case had engaged in any wrongdoing.
Clinical law professor and defense attorney Richard Kling of Chicago-Kent College of Law said the new charges won't constitute double jeopardy.
"It is etched in stone that double jeopardy does not apply," Kling said. "If the argument is that Ms. Foxx's office did not have the authority to enter into an agreement because there was a conflict - and that's pretty much what Dan Webb is saying - then there's no jeopardy issue."
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