The verdict is in. Jussie Smollett has been found guilty of lying to Chicago police about being the victim of a hate crime in January 2019. At the time, Smollett alleged that he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic assault by two unidentified men, but cops accused the actor of staging the incident with the help of two brothers he worked with onEmpire. Smollett has maintained his innocence ever since.
Unfortunately for Smollett, the jurors weren’t buying his story. He was found guilty of five of the six felony counts against him, facing disorderly conduct charges for every false statement he gave to police. The five charges he was found guilty of are from the night he reported the incident and spoke with different officers, getting charged for every time he repeated his story to police. He was found not guilty on a sixth charge in relation to a separate police interview weeks later when he said he was a victim of aggravated burglary. The verdict also means Smollett will likely have to pay restitution to the city of Chicago to the tune of $130,000.
Initially, Jussie Smollett claimed that he didn’t know who attacked him, but his story changed after police determined that his attackers were Abel and Bola Osundairo, two brothers who worked with Smollett onEmpire. On the stand, Smollett alleged that he was still a victim of an assault and that the brothers were lying about his involvement. He also said he had a sexual relationship with Bola, an assertion Bola denied under oath. The Osundairos also said that Smollett had paid them for what they said was money to buy the supplies needed to carry out the hoax, including red hats resembling those of Donald Trump supporters, and instructed them on where and when to find Smollett that night.
In Smollett’s original police report, he claimed that he had been assaulted by two men spouting homophobic and racial slurs, saying they also threw bleach on him and tied a rope around his neck. When police greeted Smollett at his home after he called them in, the actor still had the rope around his neck. Surveillance footage also revealed Smollett walking home still carrying the Subway sandwich he bought before the incident which seemed peculiar to investigators. Smollett denied that he had any involvement in what police were quick to believe was a hoax, but his story crumbled fast once officers located the Osundairo brothers, both of whom were very cooperative from the start.
Smollett is facing up to three years in prison, though it’s unclear at this time if he’ll actually be serving any time behind bars. Worse yet, he’s also still facing a civil lawsuit against him filed by the city of Chicago to recover the costs of investigating the case. The whole ordeal has also already had a serious impact on Smollett’s acting career, as his character was immensely scaled back out ofEmpire’s final season with no other big roles currently lined up for him. With all that being said, there will always be the chance he could return to acting after facing the consequences for his crimes, as we’ve recently seen with Lori Loughlin. This news comes to us fromTMZ.
