Now that the Jussie Smollett verdict has been rendered, you may be surprised to find out what comes next for the embattled actor.
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On Thursday, former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett was found guilty on 5 counts of felony disorderly conduct for making false reports to police that he was the victim of a hate crime in January of 2019. Jurors deliberated for 2 days after hearing strikingly different stories from Smollett and his accomplices, Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo. After nearly 2 weeks of testimony and 48 hours of reflection, the jury made it unanimously clear via their verdict that they bought absolutely none of Smollett’s story.
According to the 39-year-old Black and gay Smollett, he was on his way home after purchasing a SUBWAY sandwich during the wee hours of the night in 2019 when 2 unknown men accosted him, yelled racial and homophobic slurs at him, poured bleach on him, then hung a noose around his neck.
It didn’t take long for police to use security camera surveillance footage from the area to identify the men in the “attack” as the Osundairo brothers and not some mysterious white racists. It also didn’t take long for the brothers to quickly sell Smollett out and admit that the entire saga was a setup designed to get the actor more attention and more money for his performances on “Empire.”
“He explained he wanted me to fake beat him up. I believed he could help further my acting career,” Abimbola Osundairo said in agreeing to do it. “He told me that we would need another person to fake beat him up. He mentioned could my brother do it. I said yes.”
Once Abimbola and Olabinjo broke with the official “story,” Smollett changed his tune and admitted that the brothers were indeed involved in the attack. However, in a strange twist, he claimed the motive was jealousy.
During surprisingly graphic testimony on the stand, Smollett claimed he and Abel Osundairo met at a gay club one night and hit it off. They soon retired to a popular gay bathhouse in Chicago where they did cocaine and marijuana and “made out” sexually. He concluded that the attack only happened once he broke things off sexually with Abel.
Not only did the jury not believe Smollett’s story, but neither did the Chicago police.
He “gets attacked in a hate crime, supposed hate crime. And during all this scuffle, they poured bleach on him and all of this,” Former Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said. “When he got up and went into his apartment building, he still had this Subway sandwich. Well, that doesn’t happen. When people get attacked like that, whatever belongings they have out there they usually leave it until the police can go back with them because they’re afraid. This guy had the sandwich in his hand and never been touched.
“When I initially saw the video of him in his apartment with the noose [still] around his neck, I was concerned, because I don’t think there are many Black people in America that would have a noose around their neck and wouldn’t immediately take it off,” Johnson continued. “And then the way he was so nonchalant, handling, it gave me pause for concern, you know, but I would not let the police department make him an offender until the evidence just got to be so overwhelming.”
So, what’s next for Smollett?
By doubling down on his original lie and testifying under oath on the stand, Jussie Smollet has set himself up for failure going forward — all in the interest of saving face in the court of public opinion.
Had he simply not taken the stand to testify in his own defense, legal experts believe he would have only received probation from the guilty Jussie Smollett verdict. Now, the judge will almost certainly hand him a jail sentence for wasting the time and resources of the Chicago police department and the court system.
In light of claims that Abel Osundairo attacked the actor after a failed sexual relationship, the Osundairo brothers are suing Smollett for defamation. He also faces a $130k lawsuit from the city of Chicago.
Additionally, Jussie Smollett will likely never work in television or film again. His public persona is simply too toxic at this time for any producer to want to take a gamble on hiring him.
So, it appears that the Jussie Smollett verdict has rendered the actor over and done. A has-been whose career ended just as it was beginning to take off.
Needless to say, that realization did not at all sit well with the actor’s attorney.
“There’s a misapprehension and a misconception that people have to prove their innocence rather than to be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” an angry defense attorney, Heather Widell, said. “And so, I think that there was a disadvantage from the start, particularly given the fact that Mr. Smollett was tried and convicted in the media, and in the court of public opinion, long before this trial ever started.”
Jussie Smollett and his attorney plan to appeal the verdict. Too bad for him, but the damage is already done.
NBC News: Smollett claimed that he had been attacked by two men who used racist and homophobic slurs. He said that they had doused him with bleach, tied a noose around his neck and screamed “this is MAGA country.” Their words echoed then-President Donald Trump’s divisive slogan, which had become a racist rallying cry. My personal experience and the seething cauldron of hate that Trump had stirred up made it easy for me to believe Smollett. After all, why would a Black man make up a hoax when much of our history had been made bloody by white people telling lies that led to violence against us? I wasn’t the only one. At the time, the Rev. Al Sharpton tweeted, “The reported hate attack on my friend and brother, actor Jussie Smollett is despicable and outrageous. The guilty must face the maximum.” Empire producer Danny Strong, in a now deleted… Read more »