Jussie Smollett.Photo:Prince Williams/Wireimage
Prince Williams/Wireimage
This comes almost two years after he wasfound guiltyfor staging a hate crime against himself and making a false police report. He wassentenced to 150 daysin jail in March 2022 and subsequently released pending his appeal.
Smollett, an openly gay Black actor, was charged with six counts of disorderly conduct for making false reports to investigators in January 2019 after telling police he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack. Each count represents one instance of reporting a false claim, PEOPLE reported at the time.
He was found guilty on five of the six counts.
He had allegedly told police that he was walking to his Chicago home in the early morning hours of Jan. 29 when two masked men, one of them sporting a red hat, spouted racial slurs and attacked him. He claimed they also doused him with bleach and put a noose around his neck,CBS2reported at the time.
Prosecutors alleged that Smollett staged the attack to get media attention and paid $3,500 to two brothers, Abimbola “Bola” and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo, to help him pull it off.
Smollett’s case has been embroiled in numerous back-and-forths with authorities since the 2019 incident which appeared to be racist and homophobic upon first glance.
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Initial charges against him were dropped before a special prosecutor was assigned to investigate his case, according to the opinion handed down on Friday.
Smollett sought to dismiss the charges claiming an “invalid appointment of the special prosecutor," and Friday’s opinion stated that not only did the actor file an appeal on a case that was under a different proceeding, but he also did so after the deadline had passed.
source: people.com
