A Cook County judge has ripped State Attorney Kim Foxx for employing a double standard by prosecuting a woman for allegedly filing a false police report while dropping 16 far more serious charges against actor Jussie Smollett.
Candace Clark, 21, is charged with one felony count of making a false report. Prosecutors say she gave an acquaintance access to her bank account, then told authorities that money had been stolen from it. She denies the charges.
“Well, Ms. Clark is not a movie star, she doesn’t have a high-price lawyer, although, her lawyer’s very good,” Cook County Judge Marc Martin said. “And this smells, big time,” Fox 10 reported. “And this smells big time.”
“There’s no publicity on this case. She doesn’t have Mark Geragos as her lawyer or Ron Safer or Judge Brown,” the judge said. “It’s not right. And [if] I proceed in this matter, you’re just digging yourselves further in a hole. [If the] press gets a hold of this, it’ll be in a newspaper. Why is Ms. Clark being treated differently than Mr. Smollett?”
The judge let Foxx have it. “”I’d like to know why Ms. Clark is being treated differently than Jussie Smollett. It’s a disorderly conduct case. A lot less egregious than Mr. Smollett’s case. I have a problem with it,” the judge said of Foxx at an April 11 court hearing.
“I didn’t create this mess, your office created this mess. And your explanation is unsatisfactory to this court. She’s being treated differently.”
Foxx has been roundly criticized for dropping 16 felony counts against Smollett, who claimed he was attacked by two white men in a racist and homophobic assault. His story drew questions when two other men, both black and connected to his same TV show, “Empire,” were seen in videos buying masks and sunglasses.
The state attorney dropped all indictments and sealed the case. The deal did not require Smollet to admit guilt, something that prompted the the city’s top police official to call the move a “whitewash of justice.”
Foxx recused herself from the Smollett case, but recently revealed text messages with her assistant Joseph Magats show she called the actor a “washed up celeb who lied to cops.” She also urged her assistant to be lenient on Smollett. “Sooo……I’m recused, but when people accuse us of overcharging cases…16 counts on a class 4 becomes exhibit A,” Foxx wrote to Magats on March 8.
“Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16. On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I think it’s indicative of something we should be looking at generally. Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should,” she added, referring to the case of singer R. Kelly, indicted on 10 felony charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Under terms for Clark, she must pay back $2,800 and serve “deferred prosecution,” something that not required of Smollett.
The city of Chicago filed the suit against the actor after missed a deadline to reimburse authorities for the hundreds of hours of overtime put in by the Chicago Police Department in the course of investigating the alleged underlying hate crime. The city demanded Smollett pay $130,000, but he failed to do so.
The lawsuit also includes rebuttals of claims Smollett made after the alleged January 29 attack. The actor told police that the main attacker “was wearing a ski mask that covered his entire face, with the exception of the area around his eyes, by which [Smollett] could tell the attacker was white-skinned,” the lawsuit says.
“Defendent made this statement despite knowing that the Osundairo Brothers are not white-skinned,” the suit says, according to the New York Post. “By providing this false description, (Smollett) purposely misled the CPD officers to believe that his attackers were white, when, in fact, (Smollett) knew that his attackers were the Osundairo brothers.”
The suit also says, “At no point did Defendant inform police that he knew his attackers or recognized their appearances or voices.”
