Empire actor, Jussie Smollett was found guilty Thursday on five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct for making a false report to Chicago police in January 2019.
According to prosecutors, Smollett is believed to have staged the attack and also made false reports to the police that he had been a victim of a hate crime in 2019.
The case, which gained the attention of the LGBTQI community and rights organisations in 2019 revealed a guilty verdict against Jussie Smollett who now faces a disorderly conduct charge for a false crime report making it a Class 4 felony punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine.
Cook County Judge James Linn will have discretion in imposing a concurrent or consecutive sentence for each count at a later date.
According to CNN, special prosecutor Dan Webb said at a news conference that he was proud of the jury. The jury of six men and six women deliberated for more than nine hours over Wednesday and Thursday.
“Mr. Smollett would not have lost this case as he did today unless the jury found that he lied to them,” he said. “The fact that he came up with a completely ridiculous story to explain his misconduct did not apparently have an impact on the jury’s verdict.”
Smollett was found guilty of disorderly conduct for making false reports to Chicago police officer Muhammad Baig and Detective Kimberly Murray on the day of the incident. He was acquitted of making a false report to another Chicago detective weeks after the alleged attack.
Jussie Smollett could face up to three years in prison and a fine
On January 29, 2019, Smollett, who is Black and gay, told authorities he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack near his Chicago apartment early that morning.
When the story broke, many advocacy groups including celebrities rallied behind the 39-year-old actor who claimed that he had been attacked at 2 am as he walked back from a Subway sandwich shop.
Chicago police investigated the case as a possible hate crime but soon said the actor orchestrated the incident. They said he paid two brothers he knew from the TV show “Empire” to stage the incident for publicity. Smollett said he paid the brothers for training advice and nutritional tips.
The brothers, Bola and Ola Osundairo, were among seven witnesses for the prosecution. The brothers testified that Smollett directed them and paid them to stage the attack in an attempt to get media attention.
They said that they fake punched him, poured bleach on him, put a noose around his neck and used racist and homophobic slurs — because he told them to.
Source: CNN
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