On April 22, U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall dismissed a suit by embattled actor Jussie Smollett in which he alleged he was the victim of a malicious prosecution over his allegedly staged January 2019 hate-crime attack, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Kendall said that Smollett's claim against the City of Chicago and several police officers cannot proceed because he has been re-indicted by a special Cook County grand jury on charges stemming from the same incident.
Smollett, who is Black and openly gay, told police in 2019 that he was attacked in 2019 by two men as he was walking home after getting a sandwich at a Subway restaurant in the city's Streeterville neighborhood. The men shouted slurs, poured bleach or a similar substance on him and hung a noose around his neck, he told officers. But then authorities said Smollett staged the whole incident to ultimately boost his career.