US Actor, Jussie Smollett Sentenced To 150 Days In Jail Over Staged Hate Crime

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US Actor, Jussie Smollett Found Guilty Of Staging Hate Crime Against HimselfUS actor, Jussie Smollett has been sentenced to 150 days in jail after a jury found him guilty of falsely telling police he was the victim of a racist and homophobic hate crime in 2019.

According to prosecutors, the actor stated the incident himself to gain attention.

The gay 39-year-old African-American was found guilty in December of “planning” the fake assault by paying two Nigerian brothers $3,500, and of lying to police in his depositions.

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Recall that the former Empire star was found guilty in December of five charges of felony disorderly conduct after making false reports about the hoax attack.

The sentence also includes 30 months of probation and $145,000 (£110,000) in restitution and fines.

Read Also: ‘Empire’ Star Jussie Smollet Brutalized In Racist, Homophobic Attack

The trial stemmed from an incident three years ago when Smollett said he was attacked by two assailants.

The actor, who is black and gay, said the attackers shouted slurs at him and a Trump slogan, dumped a “chemical substance” on him and tied a noose around his neck while he was walking late at night in January 2019.

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Authorities opened an investigation, but in February of that year, police charged Smollett with filing a false police report, alleging he had staged the assault.

At trial last year, a jury of six men and six women heard from the Nigerian brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who testified Smollett paid them to orchestrate the attack and paid them $3,500 to carry it out.

Read Also: Former Empire Actor, Jussie Smollett Allegedly Sexually Involved With His ‘Attacker’

Smollett faced up to three years in prison for each of the five counts. However, he will serve the first 150 days of his sentence in prison as part of a total of 30 months on probation.

He must also pay $120,106 in restitution to the city of Chicago and $25,000 in fines – the maximum allowable by law.

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Throughout the trial, Smollett maintained that he had been the victim of a crime.

In court on Thursday, his defence team again asked that the case be thrown out or declared a mistrial, citing a previous prosecutor’s 2019 promise to drop the charges.

Read Also: Actor Jussie Smollet Suspended From Empire TV Show For The Rest Of The Season

Prosecutors characterised the effort as “finger-pointing and scapegoating“.

Additionally, the judge heard from several witnesses who testified on Smollett’s behalf in a bid for leniency.

Jussie should not be incarcerated,” his brother Joel said. “He is not a threat to the people of Illinois.

A victim impact statement on behalf of the Chicago Police Department read in court said police officers had committed more than 30 officers to the investigation – spread over 1,426 regular hours and 1,837 overtime hours.

They had interviewed dozens of witnesses, watched thousands of hours of surveillance videos and gone door-to-door during Chicago’s Polar Vortex – one of the coldest periods in the city’s history, it said.

Judge James Linn repeatedly addressed Smollett directly and noted that the “unprecedented” media attention the case attracted is usually reserved for murder cases.

Mr Linn said;

You really crave the attention and you wanted to get the attention. There is nothing that I can do here today that can come close to the damage you’ve already done to your own life. You’ve turned your life upside down by your conduct and shenanigans. You’re just a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime, and that’s shameful.

He said the actor had a streak that was “profoundly arrogant and selfish and narcissistic.

The Judge added;

This was premeditated to the extreme… You’ve destroyed your life as you knew it. You did damage to real hate crimes victims.

Following the sentencing, Smollett left the courtroom with a raised fist, and exclaimed: “I am innocent, and I am not suicidal.

He said;

If I did this, then it means that I stuck my fist in the fears of black Americans in this country for over 400 years and the fears of the LGBT community. But I did not do this.

Smollett’s acting career stalled after the incident. He lost his role as a singer-songwriter in the final season of Empire, a Fox television hip-hop drama.

Via AFP.

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