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Question for folks -- especially attorneys practicing in #Illinois and #CookCounty -- regarding the news that charges have been dropped in the Jussie Smollett case:
What should we make of the fact that Smollett agreed to forfeit his bond to the city of Chicago? 1/x
What should we make of the fact that Smollett agreed to forfeit his bond to the city of Chicago? 1/x
I'm getting this information from the @washingtonpost story washingtonpost.com/arts-entertain… and here are the relevant snippets from the story: /2 
Some quick Googling tells people will sometimes forfeit their bond in order to cover court costs and fees. And it is possible that the state or the county have crazy fees associated with just getting charged with a crime (@Beth_Colgan has informed my on that issue) 3/x
I'm also a little dubious about the claim by Smollett's defense attorney that there was no agreement with prosecutors, since the prosecutor specifically referenced his decision to forfeit the bond to the city as one reason that they decided to drop the charges. 4/x
Finally, given the amount of press that this case has received, the decision not to give a fuller explanation of the decision to drop the charges raises some of the same problems as failures to explain decisions not to charge /end
This is helpful!
And here is a thread w/ statements from the prosecutor who made the decision to drop the charges. Looks like the defense attorney's statement that there was no "agreement" with prosecutors is not accurate:
