The former Empire star, Jussie Smollett was recently found guilty of staging his own hate crime. He was also found guilty of making a false police report about the crime in question. On Thursday, after deliberating for a few hours, the jury found him guilty of these charges.
The Verdict Is In
Smollett, who is openly gay and a Black actor, made false reports back in January of 2019. He told the police that he was a victim of a hate crime that was not only racist but also homophobic. He was found guilty on five of six different counts!
Empire Actor Jussie Smollett’s Hate Crimes
When the crime supposedly happened, he told the police that he was walking home in Chicago in the morning. He told them that two masked men attacked him and they were shouting racial slurs. It made it clear to tell the police that one of them was wearing a red hat. He reported that they threw bleach on him and put a noose around his neck.
It seems that Smollett wasn’t in this alone though. He had the help of two brothers, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo. They testified that he paid them $3,500 to help him to commit this crime against himself. His attorneys told the court that the brothers actually did attack him because they are homophobic. Interestingly enough, both men are also Black.
Abimbola told the court that Smollett contacted him and “explained that he wanted me to fake beat him up. I felt indebted to Jussie. He also got me a stand-in role on Empire, and I believed he could further my acting career.”
He then told the court that Jussie wanted him to say, “Empire f****t, n****r, MAGA. He wants me to attack him, but he wanted me to pull the punch so I don’t hurt him, give him a bruise. He wanted to use the fake attack or camera footage for media.”
Jussie was indicted in March of 2019, but the charges were dropped. Dan Webb, who is a special prosecutor revived this case when Jussie was charged with disorderly conduct. Smollett said, he “knew at the time… there was no reasonable ground for believing that such an offense had been committed.”
Smollett’s final sentence has yet to be read, but he could face jail time and fines for these incidents. In a time when there is already such injustice for those of different races, why would anyone fake a hate crime in order to get attention? he definitely has gotten it.
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