US actor Jussie Smollett sentenced to 150 days in prison for lying to police about fake hate crime
Former Empire actor Jussie Smollett has been sentenced to 30 months of probation, ordered to pay a US$25,000 ($33,982) fine and spend 150 days in jail for making false reports to police that he was the victim of a hate crime in January 2019.
Smollett, 39, was found guilty in December on five counts of felony disorderly conduct for making false reports about what he said was an anti-gay and anti-Black hate crime.
The actor, who is Black and gay, told Chicago police that on a frigid night in January 2019 two unknown men attacked him, yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him, poured bleach on him and wrapped a noose around his neck.
Celebrities and politicians rushed to defend him publicly, and Chicago police investigated the case as a possible hate crime.
But they soon determined the actor orchestrated the incident and paid two brothers he knew from the Fox drama Empire to stage the incident for publicity.
Smollett maintained his innocence under oath during the trial, but the jury convicted him on five of six felony charges after nine hours of deliberations.
A disorderly conduct charge for a false crime report is a class 4 felony in Illinois, each punishable by up to three years in prison and a US$25,000 ($33,982) fine.
Cook County Judge James Linn has discretion in imposing a concurrent or consecutive sentence for each of the five counts.
He is allowed to sentence Smollett to probation, conditional discharge, community service, restitution or a combination. Conditional discharge is a release with stipulations but without probational supervision.
At the hearing today, Smollett attorney Tina Glandian argued that the guilty verdict should be overturned and a new trial granted based on legal errors leading up to and during the trial.
Sean Wieber, deputy special prosecutor, said in response that her arguments were “meritless” and that the conviction should stand.
Judge Linn denied the defence’s request.
“I stand by my findings and rulings. I do believe that at the end of the day that Mr Smollett received a fair trial,” he said.
What the case was about
The sentencing is the latest event in a winding case entangled in issues of racism, homophobia, celebrity, policing and fraud.
After police determined his reports were false, Smollett was indicted in March 2019 on 16 counts of felony disorderly conduct.
But Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office dropped all charges weeks later, saying he did community service, would not get his US$10,000 ($13,500) bond back, was no danger to the community and had no prior felonies.
That decision set off debate over whether Smollett had received preferential treatment, leading a judge to appoint a special prosecutor, Dan Webb, to look into it in August 2019.
That led to a second grand jury, which in February 2020 indicted Smollett on six felony charges.
The incident effectively ended Smollett’s acting career.
His character was written out of Empire, which ended in 2020, and though he has since directed and produced a film, he’s yet to appear in another TV or film acting role.
In court late last year, the brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, were among seven witnesses for the prosecution at the trial.
They testified that Smollett directed them and paid them to stage the attack in an attempt to garner sympathetic media coverage.
“Who was in charge of this thing?” special prosecutor Dan Webb asked.
“Jussie was,” Abimbola Osundairo told the jury.
Smollett testified in his own defence to deny any such plan and said he paid the brothers only for training advice and nutritional tips.
He cast doubt on their true motivations and said he had a sexual relationship with one of the brothers, which the brother denied.
