[imagesource: Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times]
When news of an attack on Jussie Smollett first broke back in January 2019, sympathetic messages poured in from around the world.
The American actor, best known for his role on the TV show Empire, alleged that he had been attacked by two masked men late at night.
Smollett claimed the men shouted homophobic slurs, yelled the Trump slogan “This is MAGA country”, dumped a “chemical substance” on him, and tied a noose around his neck.
Fast forward a month and his story began to unravel. He was accused of paying two brothers $3 500 to stage the assault in a ploy to get public sympathy and boost his profile, and the tide of public opinion very much turned against him.
Yesterday, Smollett was found guilty after a jury in Chicago deliberated for nine hours following a two-week trial.
The Guardian reports:
[The jury] found Smollett guilty of five charges of disorderly conduct. He was acquitted on a sixth count, of lying to a detective in mid-February, weeks after Smollett said he was attacked…
Prosecutors had described the evidence against Smollett as “overwhelming”, saying what he did in January 2019 caused Chicago police to unduly spend enormous amounts of time and resources…
The brothers, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo [above], said Smollett orchestrated the hoax, telling them to put a noose around his neck and rough him up in view of a surveillance camera, and that he said he wanted video of the hoax made public via social media.
Smollett had said during his testimony that the $3 500 was paid to Abimbola for a workout and meal plan.
History is full of stories of people staging kidnappings, often for financial gain, but staged attacks like this are far rarer.
The prosecution came down hard on the actor for wasting law enforcement resources. The investigation involved around 24 officers and totalled in excess of 3 000 staff hours.
It appears that the actor will appeal the decision, via Sky News:
Smollett’s defence attorney Nenye Uche said the TV actor would appeal his conviction.
He said Smollett was disappointed but was confident his client would be “cleared of all accusations on all charges” because he is “100% innocent”.
Even though each of the five felony counts carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison, it’s likely that Smollett will be placed on probation and ordered to perform community service.
A post-trial hearing has been set for January 27 with sentencing to take place at a later date.
Aside from squandering valuable resources, what’s so sad about all this is that it gives those who refuse to acknowledge hate crimes in America further ammo to dismiss real attacks.
