Jussie Smollett, an accomplished actor and former lead actor in the TV sitcom Empire, has been found guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct and filing false police reports. As the verdict was read, Smollett showed no emotion. He was acquitted on a sixth count, which involved lying to a detective. He was released and Judge Linn set a post-trial hearing for January 27th. Smollett’s sentencing is scheduled for a later date. He could facea $25,000 fine and up to three years in prison.
Smolett’s conviction marks a remarkable fall from grace. In January 2019, Smollett solicitedpublic sympathy in January 2019 after he reported being attacked by unknown individuals. Smollett alleged his attackers shouted homophobic and racial slurs and tied a noose around his noose.
Almost immediately Smollett’s story began to unravel. Police discovered he staged the attacked as a publicity stunt. They reached this conclusion after finding several conflicting pieces of evidence and interviewing the Osundairo brothers, the co-conspirators in the hoax, who testified against Smollett. The brothers told authorities that Smollett paid them $3500 and $100 to buy supplies to stage an anti-gay and racist attack in order to attract media sympathy.
Smollett maintained his innocence and plead not guilty on all six counts. During the trial, he took the stand in his own defense and doubled down on his story Smollett reported that he was attacked while going to get a Subway sandwich on a winter night in Chicago in January. The prosecution worked to dismantle many aspects of Smollett’s story. They questioned him closely about his interactions with the attackers. Before a scheduled workout session, Smollett drove the two brothers around the neighborhood where the attack took place Surveillance showed, the car circled the intersection three times. When questioned about the prolonged drive, Jussie said, “I don’t know. It was three years ago.” “There was nothing strange or wrong going on.”
The special prosecutor in the case, Daniel K. Webb questioned Smollett about why he was continually updating Abimbola Osundairo about the delay to his flight. Prosecutors argued that Smollett was informing the brothers about his arrival to stage the attack. Smollett testified that he was keeping Abimbola in the loop due to their planned workouts. The brothers said that he was keeping them updated so that they could move back the time of their pre-planned attack. Webb also noticed that once the attack was carried out, there were no follow-up texts regarding any “workout sessions” they had arranged. The attack occurred less than fifty minutes after Smollett’s arrival. This fact led Webb to conclude the“workout story was a bunch of hooey, not true at all.
As the trial ended Smollett told the prosecutor, “There was no hoax on my part”. He continued to call the two brothers “liars” and rejected their testimonies. Smollett’s lawyers argue that the Osundairo brothers attacked him so that they could scare him into hiring them as his security detail
In his closing statement, Webb expressed dismay regarding the resources the Chicago police had to expend to investigate a false crime. He went on to say: Besides being against the law, it is just plain wrong to outright denigrate something as serious as a real hate crime and then make sure it involved words and symbols that have such historical significance in our country.”
After the verdict was read, Webb condemned Smollett’s actions in the strongest terms: "This jury worked so hard and for Mr. Smollett to get up in front of them and lie for hours and hours and hours, that really compounded his misconduct,” Webb said. “Defendants do not have the right to go in front of a jury and lie under oath. Mr. Smollett would not have lost this case, as he did today, unless the jury found that he lied to them.”