Jussie Smollett’s emergency bid to invalidate revived charges claiming he staged a hate hoax on himself last year was denied by the Illinois Supreme Court on Friday.
In a pair of rulings, the state’s highest court declined to put Smollet’s criminal case on hold and outright rejected his attempt to disqualify the special prosecutor who won the second round of charges against him last month.
The rulings mean Smollett’s six new counts of disorderly conduct will move ahead in circuit court in Chicago following his second “not guilty” plea entered Feb. 24.
In their emergency petition to the Supreme Court, Smollett’s lawyers argued a lower court judge “exceeded (his) jurisdiction” when he appointed special prosecutor Dan. K. Webb to reinvestigate claims Smollett suffered a racist and homophobic attack on Jan. 29, 2019.
The defense lawyers claimed Cook County Judge Michael Toomin “lacked” the “authority to essentially horizontally reverse” a prior dismissal of the case.
Police have long maintained the “Empire” actor orchestrated the bizarre attack oh himself by paying two brothers $3,500 to accost him on the street outside his residence.
On March 7, 2019, an initial grand jury indicted Smollett on the initial 16 counts of disorderly conduct, namely filing a police report.
But three weeks later on March 26, the State’s Attorney’s Office made the bombshell announcement it was dismissing the case in exchange for community service and the forfeiture of Smollett’s $10,000 bond payment.
Backlash over the agreement led Judge Toomin to appoint Webb on Aug. 23. The special prosecutor got a different grand jury to re-indict Smollett on the new six counts Feb. 11.
Smollett’s lawyers argued that Toomin’s decision to declare the prior dismissal “null and void” was “without basis in fact or law.”
They claimed the appointment of a special prosecutor is only appropriate in the state of Illinois if the state’s attorney formally files a petition of recusal.
“The record is undisputed that the State’s Attorney did not file a petition for recusal,” they argued in their failed petition, even though State’s Attorney Kim Foxx stated publicly she was recusing herself due to a conflict and handing the case off to a deputy.
“Motions for supervisory orders are extraordinary remedies and not usually granted,” Smollett’s lawyer William Quinlan told the Daily News in a statement Friday night. “We believed the unique circumstances of this case warranted filing the motion. We will now follow the standard appellate procedure.”
