Documents released on Thursday suggested that just days after Jussie Smollett’s 16-count indictment, prosecutors in Chicago were thinking of settling his charges of staging a hate crime, deepening the mystery of why they so quickly changed their mind about the case.

Mr. Smollett, 36, had been accused of paying two acquaintances to stage an attack against himself in which they shouted racist and homophobic slurs and placed a noose around his neck. In the days after his indictment on Feb. 28, Chicago police detectives met with a prosecutor from the state’s attorney’s office to turn over materials related to the investigation, according to a detective’s report.

At that time, the detective wrote, the prosecutor told them that “she felt the case would be settled with Smollett paying the city of Chicago $10,000 in restitution and doing community service.” The report, which was among about 500 pages released on Thursday, did not say exactly when the meeting occurred but indicated it happened before March 11.

On March 26, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office formally dropped all 16 felony counts against him, saying that Mr. Smollett had agreed to forfeit the $10,000 bond paid for his release and that he was not a threat to public safety.