Flanked by family members, supporters, attorneys and bodyguards, “Empire” star Jussie Smollett walks out of the Leighton Criminal Courthouse after he was found guilty on five of six counts of disorderly conduct, Thursday evening, Dec. 9, 2021. The 39-year-old actor and singer was charged with lying to Chicago police in 2019 when he claimed he was the victim of a racist and anti-gay attack near his Streeterville apartment. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
The “Empire” actor was found guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct, but the jury acquitted him on one count.
Battered in the court of public opinion almost from the moment he reported he had been attacked near his home three years ago, actor Jussie Smollett was convicted Thursday by a Cook County jury following an eight-day trial.
The former “Empire” actor was found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct and acquitted of a sixth after nine hours of deliberation by jurors — six women and six men, only one of whom was Black — indicating they may have struggled to reach a consensus.
The “Empire” actor stood rigidly, with his hands clasped in front of him, as jurors filed into Judge James Linn’s courtroom, and he showed no reaction as the forewoman read off the verdicts: guilty to the first five counts of disorderly conduct, not guilty on the sixth and final count.
Nearly an hour later, Smollett, his mother and siblings briskly walked past a throng of reporters and photographers crowded in the Leighton Criminal Courthouse’s lobby. Ignoring shouted questions and staring fixedly ahead, Smollett and his entourage rushed from the courthouse to a pair of waiting black SUVs before driving away.
The actor will remain free on his own recognizance until his sentencing, which will likely not take place for several months.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Flanked by family members, supporters, attorneys and bodyguards, “Empire” star Jussie Smollett walks out of the Leighton Criminal Courthouse as the jury deliberates Wednesday afternoon.
It was an outcome the actor likely thought he had escaped only months after the attack, when State’s Attorney Kim Foxx made the controversial choice to drop charges against Smollett in March 2019, a month after he was indicted.
Special Prosecutor Dan Webb, who was appointed to review the case against Smollett and probe potential misconduct by Foxx, saw Smollett indicted again. On Thursday, the veteran attorney said the verdict, while mixed, was a “complete vindication” of the Chicago Police investigation Smollett’s defense had tried to paint as biased and incomplete.
“Maybe the Chicago Police Department is not perfect, but I’ll tell you this, what they did on this case was extraordinary police work,” Webb said.
“And the fact that this jury convicted him on virtually all counts was based on testimony from Chicago police officers and the Osundairo brothers, and I believe it’s a complete vindication of everything the Chicago Police Department did to thoroughly and conscientiously investigate this case.”
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Former federal prosecutor Dan Webb, who was appointed special prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case, speaks to reporters Thursday evening at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse after Smollett was found guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct but acquitted on one count.
Smollett, 39, was on trial for hiring brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo to assault him on a frigid night in January 2019, scripting even the racial slurs and “MAGA” slogan they were to shout as they attacked.
Smollett’s crime was not the hoax itself, but lying that the attack was real to police, with a count for each time he told police he had been the victim of a hate crime, a battery, and, for the sixth count, an aggravated battery.
The first of the two counts were for his conversation with the officer who first arrived at his apartment after Smollett’s creative director called 911 the night of the attack, when he described being the innocent victim of a battery and a hate crime. The third, fourth and fifth counts were for repeating his story to a detective later that morning, and then again a few hours later.
The sixth count, which netted Smollett his lone not-guilty verdict, was for his statement to a different detective, two weeks after the attack on the day police told him the Osundairos were his attackers, and Smollett again claimed to have been the victim of an aggravated battery.
The melodrama that has surrounded the case almost since police first received a 911 call from Smollett’s creative manager on Jan. 29, 2019, likely is not over.
Smollett’s attorney, Nenye Uche, told reporters in the courthouse lobby that they would appeal the verdict, although Uche declined to list any of the “many” issues with the high-profile case. The mixed result, Uche said, did not make sense.
“The verdict is inconsistent. You cannot say Jussie is not lying for the same exact incident,” Uche told reporters in the courthouse lobby.
“Jussie is disappointed, but he remains confident. He’s 100 percent confident this is going to be reversed on appeal.”
Smollett is unlikely to face as stiff a sentence as public sentiment has already dealt him –the actor was fired from his hit television show and his budding music career stalled and died.
Taking the stand for eight hours spanning two days of the trial last week, Smollett admitted he had not received any new offers for work since he was charged a month after the purported attack.
“I’ve lost my livelihood,” he testified dryly.
The charges are low-level felonies that carry a possible sentence of three years but would likely result in a sentence of probation for the fallen star.
Linn did not set a date for sentencing. Lawyers — but not Smollett — will have an online hearing Jan. 27 to set a schedule for post-trial motions.
The jury forewoman shut her door in suburban Burbank when questioned about the verdicts later Thursday night. “No comment, no comment,” she said.
Two other female jurors also declined comment.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Lead defense attorney Nenye Uche speaks to reporters Thursday evening at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse after his client, “Empire” star Jussie Smollett, was found guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct but acquitted on one count.
Webb said Smollett’s testimony, which featured some tense sparring with the former federal prosecutor, likely hurt Smollett’s case. Webb called Smollett’s account — that he had been headed to the store to buy eggs before detouring to get a sandwich at 2 a.m. on a frigid January night — was “ridiculous,” as was his statement on the stand that he could not be sure the Osundairos were his attackers, even after watching the testimony presented at trial.
“Defendants do not have the right to go in front of a jury and lie under oath,” Webb said Thursday night.
“Twenty-six Chicago police officers spent 3,000 hours of time, costing this city well over $100,000, for a fake crime that never occurred,” Webb said. “And by the way. a fake crime that denigrates what a real hate crime is.”
Police officers are often accused of sweeping “things under the rug,” but when Smollett reported that he was attacked, “They took it seriously, they believed he was a victim of a crime and they worked so hard …,” Webb said.
Webb took on the case for free after a judge appointed him to investigate the circumstances that led to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office dropping the initial charges against Smollett in March 2019.
Webb said he felt the evidence against Smollett was “overwhelming” after reviewing the case and re-indicted the actor on the charges he ultimately faced in the two-week trial.
Though Webb found no evidence of criminal misconduct by State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her staff in the office’s decision to drop the charges, he accused the county’s top prosecutor of “substantial abuses of discretion.“
Webb’s full report on his finding remains under seal and has not been released to the public.
On Thursday, Webb declined to comment on what the trial’s outcome said about the state’s attorney’s office’s decision to drop the charges, saying “what happened speaks for itself.” Foxx was reelected in 2020, handily defeating primary challengers and her general election opponent despite the controversy.
A state’s attorney’s office spokeswoman wrote in a statement Thursday: “The Jury has spoken. While this case has garnered a lot of attention, we hope as a county we can move forward.
“We will continue to focus on the important work of this office, prioritizing and prosecuting violent crime.”
The special prosecutors’ case rested heavily on testimony from Smollett’s former co-conspirators in a clearly ad hoc plot to boost his celebrity status by casting the openly gay Black actor as the victim of a pair of white Donald Trump supporters who happened upon Smollett as he returned from a 2 a.m. trip to a sandwich shop near his Streeterville home.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Olabinjo Osundairo speaks to reporters at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse after Jussie Smollett was found guilty Thursday evening.
Abimbola Osundairo had worked for several years with Smollett on the “Empire” set and as a personal trainer and occasional drug purveyor, when the actor sent him a fateful text in January 2019: “Might need your help on the low.” Smollett said he was arranging for Abimbola Osundairo to buy him illegal steroids during a trip to Nigeria. Abimbola Osundairo testified it was the first step in plotting the attack, which Smollett wanted carried out because his studio wasn’t taking a menacing letter addressed to the actor as a serious threat.
Osundairo’s older brother, Olabinjo, was recruited for the staged attack soon after. The goal, the Osundairos testified, was to have the attack filmed by a police surveillance camera — footage that could be posted to social media and establish the actor as victim of a horrific crime.
Smollett scouted the location poorly — the camera was pointed in the opposite direction– but the attack wound up launching Smollett’s name recognition to stratospheric heights, though the controversy would cost him his “Empire” job and render him a punchline and a pariah.
Smollett’s defense struggled to add yet another alternative plot line to a case that has been wrapped in conspiracy theories since reports of the attack first hit the news. Smollett’s lawyers tried to cast the brothers as scammers and homophobes who plotted against Smollett even as Abimbola Osundairo cultivated a friendship with the star.
The Osundairos’ testimony tied together a highly circumstantial case. Only they and Smollett were in on the plan, which was sketched out by the actor a few days before the attack, the brothers testified.
Abimbola Osundairo, now a nationally ranked amateur boxer, was in Louisiana for a USA boxing match Thursday night. His brother, Olabinjo, watched the verdict on video feed in an overflow courtroom.
Contributing: Sophie Sherry, Tom Schuba and Mitchell Armentrout
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Former federal prosecutor Dan Webb, who was appointed special prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case, speaks to reporters Thursday evening at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse after Smollett was found guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct but the jury acquitted him on one count.
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