If Smollett’s resolution “is available to all defendants” and “not a new or unusual practice,” then there are a bunch of people pleading guilty and saddling themselves with lifetime criminal records for no apparent reason. Here are the details of those cases and their court dispositions…
CWBChicago researchers today located eight recent cases that align closely with Smollett’s. Like Smollett, each of these individuals had no prior adult criminal charges in Cook County. The alleged incidents took place in Chicago and were handled by Chicago police. Each defendant was charged with only one crime: a single felony count of disorderly conduct-filing a false police report (720 ILCS 5.0/26-1-A-4). Smollett was charged with sixteen counts under the same statute.
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