Chicago is seeking 130,000 dollars (£99,500) from Empire actor Jussie Smollett to cover the costs of the investigation into his reported beating, which police say was staged, a city official said.
Bill McCaffrey, spokesman for the city government’s legal department, confirmed the amount on Thursday, hours after the mayor, Rahm Emanuel, said the city would try to recoup the money it spent on the investigation.
Cook County prosecutors on Tuesday dropped all of the charges against Smollett, who was accused of lying to police about being the victim of a homophobic and racist attack in Chicago on January 29.
Mr Emanuel and the police department attacked the decision to drop the charges, saying they stand by their belief that Smollett hired two friends to help him stage the attack because he was unhappy about his salary and wanted publicity.
Smollett has maintained throughout that he is innocent.
Smollett’s lawyer said his defence team would not ask for any records to be destroyed in the case.
Patricia Brown Holmes said the defence team supports “the court files being preserved” in the now-sealed criminal case that accused the actor of filing a false police report.
Cook County prosecutors offered little explanation when they dropped charges against the actor on Tuesday.
But they still insist he faked a racist, anti-gay attack on himself in January.
During a court hearing earlier Thursday, Cook County judge LeRoy K. Martin Jr said there was “no possibility” the records related to Smollett’s case would be destroyed.
He said: “In Cook County, we don’t destroy records.”
Prosecutors said during the hearing that they would notify media outlets if Smollett’s lawyers try to expunge his record.
Ms Holmes said Smollett “has not and will not file a motion for destruction of any records”.
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