Although prosecutors havedropped charges against Jussie Smollettafter he wasindicted on 16 counts of disorderly conductfor 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 theEmpireactor.
LA-based criminal defense attorney Alaleh Kamran, who is not associated with the case, tells PEOPLE 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 says 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.”
Kamran also notes that while the Chicago state prosecution will not be pursuing the case further, there is still an FBI investigation pending regarding the threatening letter Smollett allegedly received on the set ofEmpire.
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“There is still a federal investigation pending and depending on whose fingerprints, DNA or whose identity is found on the letter, then there can be prosecution,” she says.
On Tuesday the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped all charges against Smollett.
The office did not address whether or not they still believe that Smollett staged the attack, but sent a follow-up statement of support for the investigation.
Meanwhile, Smollett’s attorneys, Tina Glandian and Patricia Brown Holmes celebrated the state’s decision in a statement and emphasized the innocence of their client.
source: people.com
