Jussie Smollett Convicted Of Lying, Staging Hate Crime

A jury found actor Jussie Smollett guilty of the charges that he faked a hate crime. After a week of contentious testimony and deliberations, the jury found the actor guilty on five of six counts of disorderly conduct.

The jury acquitted him from the sixth count of lying to a detective weeks after the alleged attack.

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Jussie Smollett Charged With Five Counts of Disorderly Conduct

The 39-year-old actor who appeared in the Fox drama “Empire” received a guilty verdict on five of six charges of disorderly conduct.

These are tied to the false statements he gave to Chicago police officers where he said he was a victim of a hate crime.

Two years ago, Smollett reported to police that two men attacked him due to his skin color and sexual orientation. Smollett is black and came out as gay in 2015. 

During the 2019 incident, Smollett told Chicago police officers he was a victim of a hate crime. He also told an officer, and afterward a detective, that he was a battery victim.

During the verdict, the actor remained stoic as the jury announced the decision. He sat upright and stared straight ahead without displaying emotion. The presiding judge said he will order a pre-sentencing investigation at a later date. 

Five Guilty Counts

Smollett’s first count of disorderly conduct stemmed from him telling Chicago Police officer Muhammed Baig that he was a victim of a hate crime.

Two men allegedly put a rope around his neck. The second count consisted of him telling Baig that he was also a battery victim. He said attackers beat him and poured bleach on him. 

Counts 3 and 4 repeated the offenses but Smollett told them to a different police officer, Kimberly Murray, later that morning.

Count 5 had Smollett telling Murray again of being a battery victim. The acquitted charge (6) recounted Smollett telling detective Robert Graves that he was an aggravated battery victim. 

Smollett Faked A Hate Crime Then Lied To The Police

Following the guilty verdict, special prosecutor Dan Webb addressed the media. His message to the jury was that Smollett “faked a hate crime and then lied to the police about it”.

Afterward, Smollett “compounded his crimes by lying to the jury during the course of this trial and insulting their intelligence,” he added. 

“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 said. 

Watch the ABC News video reporting that Actor Jussie Smollett was found guilty of lying about a racist attack:

What do you think of the Justin Smollett case? Do you think that this actor can recover from this PR nightmare and resume his acting career? Or, do you think he has bigger things to worry about now?

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