i'm surprised it only cost $10k to avoid all responsibility. chicago must be hard up for cash.
He forfeited his bond; it wasn't some plea deal with a fine or anything.
I think they simply realized their case sucked dick and their behavior in the media was going to be used against them. Also quite possible they truly fucked something up behind the scenes that we don't know about.
'their' behaviour?
They were the ones publically saying to ignore any leaks, and that there was definitely a crime that happened, and they were investigating accordingly right up until the moment they didn't.
While he was on fucking national TV telling his story.
If he was the victim of an assault, a smear campaign by certain officers in the CPD, a campaign that then had them let the guilty parties go free, and then had exonerating evidence that would clear him at trial, he's not saying "yeah, okay keep my bond money, we cool".
He's suing them for a multimillion dollar lawsuit.
If on the other hand he is 100% guilty of what he was accused of and indicted for, but the DA doesn't think its worth its for the publicity, the cost, and the difficulty of the case against a team of high flight lawyers... this is exactly what kind of backroom deal you might expect.