Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has been subpoenaed to appear at a court hearing this Thursday regarding her handling of the Jussie Smollett case.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Sheila O’Brien, a former appellate judge, is seeking the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the handling of Smollett’s case, and requested that “Foxx and her top deputy, Joseph Magats, as well as Smollett produce their original files and documents on the case to ensure ‘that they have not been altered or destroyed.'”
O’Brien also filed a notice to appear for Smollett to attend the hearing as well.
O’Brien claims to have no agenda “other than seeking the truth and restoring public confidence” in Foxx’s office after prosecutors abruptly dropped all 16 charges against the Empire actor on March 26th.
Smollett had previously been charged with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly staging a hate crime attack against himself.
O’Brien’s petition said that Foxx created “an appearance of impropriety, a perception that justice was not served here, that Mr. Smollett received special treatment.”
Last week, it was reported that a Cook County judge slammed Foxx for prosecuting a woman for filing a false police report while letting Smollett off the hook–despite the woman’s case being “a lot less egregious” than Smollett’s.
On April 11, Cook County Judge Marc Martin presided over the case of 21-year-old Candace Clark, who is facing a single felony count of making a false police report.
Transcripts obtained by Fox32 show Martin slammed prosecutors and said, “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.”
“Ms. Clark is not a movie star, she doesn’t have a high-priced lawyer,” said Martin. “And this smells big time. Your office created this mess. There’s no publicity on this case. Press gets ahold of this; it’ll be the newspaper.”
Clark said, “I’m not Jussie Smollett. I wish I was, but it’s OK. I’ll get my justice.”
