Jussie Smollett convicted of staging hate crime, lying to cops
The 'Empire' alum, who claimed to be attacked in Chicago in 2019, was found guilty on 5 of 6 charges
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jussie Smollett was found guilty on 5 out of 6 charges at his hate crime hoax trial.
After a contentious week of witness testimony, counsel arguments and deliberation, the jury found Smollett guilty on the first five counts, and he was acquitted on a sixth count of lying to a detective weeks after Smollett said he was attacked.
Smollett was stoic as the jury read the verdict. The actor sat upright and stared straight ahead without showing any outward emotion.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Judge Linn said he will order a pre-sentencing investigation, and attorneys will meet via conference call to determine a date for pre-sentencing motions
The judge also said the jury will not be speaking to the media today, if it ever chooses to. He is also having deputies escort jurors to their cars.
A LOOK AT JUSSIE SMOLLETT’S TWO-DAY EXPLOSIVE COURT TESTIMONY AS TRIAL WINDS DOWN
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 39-year-old "Empire" alum was charged with six counts of disorderly conduct related to false statements to Chicago police officers about a 2019 hate crime against him. In 2019, he claimed that two men attacked him due to his skin color and sexual orientation.
He was found guilty of telling a police officer he was a hate crime victim, telling an officer he was a battery victim, telling a detective he was a hate crime victim, telling a detective he was a battery victim and then telling a detective again he was battery victim. He was not found guilty on a sixth charge of telling a second detective he was an aggravated battery victim.
In this courtroom sketch, actor Jussie Smollett stands in a Leighton Criminal Courthouse courtroom Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Chicago, as a jury finds him guilty on five of six countes he staged a racist, anti-gay attack on himself and lied to police about it. (AP Photo/Cheryl Cook)
Count 1 accused him of telling responding Chicago Police Officer Muhammed Baig at around 2:45 a.m., some 45 minutes after the purported attack, that he was the victim of a hate crime. He said two attackers put a rope around his neck. Count 2 referred to Smollett telling the same officer he was a victim of a battery, describing attackers beating and pouring bleach on him.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Counts 3 and 4 stemmed from Smollett making the same claims but to a different officer, Kimberly Murray, later that morning, just before 6 a.m.
Count 5 accused Smollett of again telling Murray at around 7:15 p.m. that he was the victim of a battery. Count 6 referred to Smollett reporting on Feb. 14, 2019, to detective Robert Graves that he’d been a victim of an aggravated battery.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Following the guilty verdict, special prosecutor Dan Webb addressed the media and told reporters that his message to the jury was that Smollett "faked a hate crime and then lied to the police about it and then compounded his crimes by lying to the jury during the course of this trial and insulting their intelligence."
"With the resounding verdict we just received from this jury after one day of deliberations in which they found Mr. Smollett guilty on virtually all charges of doing exactly what we said he did – reporting a fake crime to the Chicago Police Department as a real crime. That verdict was a resounding message by the jury that, in fact, Mr. Smollett did exactly what we said he did."
Webb also delved into the man hours that he believes went into investigating Smollett’s hoax attack, telling media members that "26 Chicago police officers spent 3000 hours of time, costing the city well over $100,000 for a fake crime that never occurred."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Added the prosecutor: "And, by the way, a fake crime that denigrates what a real hate crime is. And to use these meanings and symbols that are so abhorrent in our society it's clear why the police would take it seriously. And they did."
Attorney Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez, center, representing Ola Osundairo, left, talks to reporters in the Leighton Criminal Courthouse lobby Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Chicago, after a jury found actor Jussie Smollett guilty on five of six charges he staged a racist, anti-gay attack on himself and lied to police about it. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
He spoke of detectives recalling "working 36 hours with no sleep and so were other police officers because they had to trudge through these communities and get doorbells that had these cameras on it, and the work they did was extraordinary.
"So I had told the jury that what happened here was so wrong for the Chicago Police Department, and by the way, maybe the Chicago Police Department is not perfect. But I'll tell you this: What they did on this case was extraordinary police work, and the fact that this jury convicted him on virtually all counts was based on testimony from Chicago Police officers and the two Osundairo brothers. And I believe it's a complete vindication of everything the Chicago Police Department did to thoroughly and conscientiously investigate this case."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A jury convicted actor Jussie Smollett of five counts of disorderly conduct for staging a racist, anti-gay attack in Chicago and lying to police. (AP Graphic)
Gloria Rodriguez, the attorney for the Osundairo brothers, also spoke to the press from the courthouse foyer on Thursday evening and said her clients "could not be more thrilled" with the guilty verdict, absolving their names that she said were "dragged through the mud."
"We honor and respect the jury's outcome, but understand that there is a lot of healing that needs to happen," she explained. "First and foremost, there is one unsung hero in all of this, and my clients really want to make sure she gets the credit she deserves. And that is retired Judge Sheila O'Brien. Without the judge, we do not have the office of the special prosecutor. We do not have people being held accountable. We do not have the verdict that we have today. So wherever you are, Judge O'Brien, my clients and myself, we thank you. We thank you for having the guts to file that motion seeking an appointment of the office of the special prosecutor. Without your guts and without your gumption, we would not be here today having this closure. So thank you."
The actor claimed to have been attacked in Chicago by two men in 2019. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
She also thanked Webb for his willingness to even take the case when "nobody wanted this case. None of the other state's attorneys wanted this case. None of the other appellate state's attorneys in the state of Illinois wanted this case."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}JUSSIE SMOLLETT: KEY MOMENTS SINCE ACTOR REPORTED CHICAGO ATTACK
"And yet Chief Judge [Michael] Toomin found Winston & Strawn LLP, and thank God that he did and he appointed Dan Webb," Rodriguez said. "Dan Webb and his team, especially Sean Weiber and Sam Mendenhall, deserve so much credit. I understand that they did this pro bono. The hours that they put into this case would astound you. The preparation that they had to go through. And I know, particularly Sam Mendenhall was here in this building on his birthday. Anniversaries were missed. Recitals were missed so that we would be prepared and ready to go this last week of trial. So to the office of the special prosecutor, my clients and I personally thank you for taking us across the finish line."
Since being accused of staging the attack, Smollett has maintained his innocence and said during his two-day testimony that "there was no hate crime hoax from my standpoint."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Prosecutors, however, argued that Smollett carried out a "dry run" of the attack the day before it occurred in 2019.
JUSSIE SMOLLETT TRIAL: ACTOR ALSO FIGHTING BATTLE IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION
Among the surprising claims made in Smollett's testimony was the revelation that the actor received a text from CNN's Don Lemon, supposedly relaying information that the Chicago Police Department didn’t believe Smollett's account of what happened.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Smollett's attorney, Nenye Uche, said on Thursday following the conclusion of the trial that they are appealing the actor's guilty verdicts. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP | AP Photo/Cheryl Cook)
Additionally, he pushed back against testimony from Bola Osundairo, one of the alleged attackers, claiming that he'd purchased drugs from the man and "made out" with him at a gay bathhouse.
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Osundairo testified that he is not gay, and their relationship was not sexual in nature. He also previously stated that he did not sell drugs to Smollett but merely acquired them for him.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The charges are Class 4 felonies that carry a prison sentence of up to three years, but experts have said Smollett would likely be placed on probation and ordered to perform community service if convicted.
Smollett's attorney, Nenye Uche, said on Thursday following the conclusion of the trial that Smollett would be appealing the actor's guilty verdicts.
He said Smollett’s team is confident "he’s going to be cleared of all, all accusations on all charges. The verdict is inconsistent," he said. "You can’t say Jussie is lying and say Jussie is not lying for the same exact incident."
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Fox News' Matt Finn and Ruth Ravve as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report