A grand jury in Chicago has come back with a 16-count felony indictment against actor Jussie Smollett, in connection with accusations that he filed a false police report and faked a hate crime attack earlier this year.
Smollett claimed that he was attacked by two masked men while walking home in the early hours of January 29, telling police that the pair shouted racist and homophobic slurs at him and physically attacked him before fleeing on foot.
After several weeks of investigations and interviews, the actor was charged with felony disorderly conduct, with local police alleging that he paid brothers Ola and Abel Osundairo $3,500 to take part in the supposed staged attack.
The grand jury indictment states that Smollett lied about his attack to two separate police officers, one of whom took his initial statement, and one of whom conducted a follow-up interview the next day.
“Jussie Smollett knew that at the time … there was no reasonable ground for believing that such offenses had been committed,” said a copy of the indictment, obtained by local news sources
CWB Chicago reports that each of the felony counts carries a sentence ranging from probation to three years in prison, although a more likely outcome would be a plea bargain on one or two of the counts and minimal if any jail time.
It is alleged that the actor mailed a fake, threatening letter to himself, but no charges have been laid in relation to this.
Jussie Smollett portrayed the openly gay Jamal Lyon on the successful Fox TV show Empire, although he was cut from remaining episodes of the current season, and there is speculation that his character might be recast.
As Supt Johnson stated, allegations against Mr. Smollett are shameful & if proven, they are an affront to the people of Chicago who embraced him as a neighbor & respected him as a role model. We stand behind the work of detectives & refer any comment on indictment to prosecutors https://t.co/7bFECluCSP
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) March 8, 2019
