Actor Jussie Smollett found guilty of staging fake hate crime
Jussie Smollett lied to police when he told them that he was accosted on a dark Chicago street by two masked strangers.
Actor Jussie Smollett makes a court appearance (photo credit: REUTERS)
Actor Jussie Smollett, the one-time star of the TV drama "Empire," was found guilty on Thursday of staging a hate crime against himself in what prosecutors said was a bid to gain sympathy and bolster his career.
Prosecutors
said Smollett, who is Black and openly gay, lied to police when he told
them that he was accosted on a dark Chicago street by two masked
strangers in January 2019.
The
Cook County Circuit Court jury, which deliberated for nine hours, found
Smollett guilty of five of the six felony disorderly conduct counts he
faced, one for each time he was accused of lying to police.
Describing Smollett's account of what happened as "ridiculous,"
special prosecutor Dan Webb said, "Mr. Smollett would not have lost this
case as he did today unless the jury found that he lied to them.”
Smollett
said the men threw a noose around his neck and poured chemicals on him
while yelling racist and homophobic slurs and expressions of support for
former President Donald Trump.
Jussie Smollett exits Cook County Department of Corrections after posting bail in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., February 21, 2019 (credit: REUTERS/JOSHUA LOTT)
Police
arrested Smollett a month after the alleged assault, saying that he paid
two brothers $3,500 to stage the attack in an effort to raise his
show-business profile. He eventually pleaded not guilty to six counts of
felony disorderly conduct.
The
two brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, testified that Smollett
paid them to participate in a phoney attack and instructed them how to
attack him. During the trial, the actor took the stand and disputed
their accounts.
An emergency room doctor who treated Smollett on the night of the attack told the jury that the actor suffered real injuries.
Each felony count carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
"While
it's certainly possible that he could receive a sentence involving
prison time, the much more likely scenario is that he would receive
probation with some amount of community service," former Cook County
Prosecutor Eryk Wachnik told Reuters.
Cook County Judge James Linn did not set a date for sentencing, but scheduled a pre-sentencing hearing for January 27.
Smollett's
acting career declined after the incident. He lost his role as a
singer-songwriter in the final season of "Empire," a Fox television
hip-hop drama that ended a five-year run in 2020.
His
case took an unexpected turn in spring 2019 when the Cook County
state's attorney's office dropped a 16-count indictment against him in
exchange for Smollett forfeiting his $10,000 bond without admitting
wrongdoing.
The dismissal drew criticism from then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city's
police superintendent, who called the reversal a miscarriage of
justice.
In 2019, Webb recommended charging Smollett again and a grand jury returned an indictment.
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