Woman whose case led judge to cite Jussie Smollett matter pleads out

In the end, Candace Clark didn’t get a Jussie Smollett deal.

But facing limited options, the unemployed Hoffman Estates woman agreed Thursday to accept an offer in her disorderly conduct case that allows her to pay half of the money Cook County prosecutors had originally sought.

“I’m really not satisfied,” Clark, 21, said after her brief hearing at the Rolling Meadows courthouse had wrapped up. “I prefer that my punishment was a little bit lower than what they gave me.”

Clark’s case made headlines in April, when the judge overseeing it blasted prosecutors for treating her differently than the “Empire” actor who was accused of staging a hate crime attack. Smollett was also charged with disorderly conduct, but in a case that, Judge Marc Martin said, was far more “egregious” than Clark’s — and yet he had his charges abruptly dropped earlier this year without any formal conditions.

After Martin’s remarks about Smollett, Clark chose not to accept prosecutors’ offer of “deferred” prosecution, meaning she would have had to pay back $2,500 in restitution, attend periodic court hearings, get a job and either show proof of a job or do community service.

Under the terms of the deal she accepted Thursday, she must still do all those things, but now must pay only about $1,200.

“If ever there was somebody who deserves a break, it was my client,” said attorney William E. Conway, who agreed to handle the case for free after reading about it in the Chicago Sun-Times. “While I’m happy that she has a disposition that will allow her to move forward with her life, clearly this case exposed that there is one set of rules for the elites, the ruling class, the connected, and another set of rules for everybody else.”

As for Martin, he merely urged Clark to keep her court dates and wished her “good luck.”