4-8-19 smollett case-toney react

The Fond du Lac County District Attorney is weighing in on the surprising decision to drop charges against Empire actor Jussie Smollett.  The Cook County State’s Attorney dropped the charges just days after securing a 16 count indictment against Smollett that alleged he staged an attack by two men who hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him before beating him and looping a noose around his neck.  Fond du lac County DA Eric Toney says he was shocked at the speed at which it happened, one or two court hearings at best.   “I was pretty shocked.  This was a circumstance that to some degree tears at the fabric of society in dividing people,”  Toney told WFDL news.   Toney says his big concern is the impact these types of cases have on communities like Fond du lac.  Toney says there are a several Chicago  residents arrested for crimes in Fond du Lac who have been arrested but not convicted in Chicago for serious crimes.  “So when we’re trying to present this to a judge we’re not able to use these arrests in much of a meaningful way other than to say they have had law enforcement contacts and so to some degree what happened in that case seems like standard practice in Chicago,”   Toney said.   Toney says if  that’s the case they need to look at some significant re-evaluation of  their criminal criminal justice system.