• Home
  • About
    • Authors
  • Articles
    • Archives
    • Chaplain
    • Crime & Controversy
    • Community
    • Cop Humor
    • Editorial
    • Op-ed
    • Gear & Technology
    • Investigations
    • Laws & Legal
    • Leadership
    • News
    • Officer Down
    • On Duty
    • Tactics
  • Network
    • Illinois Network
    • Minneapolis Network
    • Tulsa Network
    • Wauwatosa Network
    • Learn more
  • Training
  • Officer Privacy
  • Jobs
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
Law Officer
Law Officer
No Result
View All Result

Jussie Smollett found guilty on five of six counts

Jussie Smollett

Jussie Smollett's trial begins Monday. (Screenshot USA Today)

December 9, 2021
Law OfficerbyLaw Officer
Share and speak up for justice, law & order...

CHICAGO — The jury in the Jussie Smollett trial returned a guilty verdict on five of six counts Thursday afternoon, according to Brett Baier during a live Fox News broadcast.

Smollett’s conviction comes nearly three years after he claimed two Trump-loving bigots beat him up, tied a noose around his neck and doused him in bleach in order to raise his public profile, New York Post reported.

For Smollett, the verdict is the final chapter in the made-for-tv saga that jurors found Smollett not just starred in, but directed from start to finish when he asked two men to “fake beat him up,” gave them a script of homophobic and racist slurs to deliver and selected a stage for the phony beatdown that he thought was in direct view of surveillance cameras.

Jurors heard six days of testimony from 13 witnesses and deliberated for less than 10 hours. In the absence of smoking gun evidence, the trial in Chicago criminal court came down to whose story was more believable: Smollett’s, or Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo’s.

Smollett allegedly told police that he was walking to his Chicago home in the early morning hours of January 29, 2019 when two masked men, one of them sporting a red hat, spouted racial slurs and attacked him. They also doused him with bleach and put a noose around his neck, CBS2 reported.

Prosecutors alleged that Smollett staged the attack to get media attention and paid $3,500 to the Osundairo brothers to help him pull it off.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Smollett’s defense attorneys suggested that the brothers may have attacked Smollett because they were homophobic.

“It’s clearly a violation of the law to go to the police and report to police a fake crime and tell police it’s a real crime,” special prosecutor Dan Webb told the jury.

“To outright denigrate something as serious, as heinous, as a real hate crime, to denigrate it and then make sure it involved words and symbols that have such horrible historical significance in our country was just plain wrong to do it and he did.”

Smollett will be sentenced in coming weeks, according to a Fox News broadcast.

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley said, “The jury got it right. … He was race baiting for his own advancement. … The evidence was so overwhelming that many people couldn’t believe he took the stand.”

Turley went on to criticize many political leaders who seemed to back the Smollett hoax.

“The jury has shown how good the system is.” he said.

Turley concluded his comments by suggesting that jail time is warranted due to the overwhelming expense to investigate and prosecute the case in addition to continuing the tall tale during courtroom testimony.

He will need to face the same judge “who didn’t buy his story any more than the jury did,” Turley said.


Share and speak up for justice, law & order...
Tags: Jonathan TurleyJussie SmollettSmollett trial
Law Officer

Law Officer

Law Officer is the only major law enforcement publication and website owned and operated by law enforcement—for law enforcement and supporters of justice, law, and order. This unique facet makes Law Officer much more than just a publishing company, but a true advocate for the law enforcement profession.

Related Posts

Anthea Butler

Ivy league professor under fire for suggesting police let ‘brown’ Ulvade kids die

May 29, 2022
Osundairo brothers

Osundairo brothers allowed to proceed with defamation lawsuit against Smollett attorney

March 20, 2022
Jussie Smollett

Appeals court orders release of Jussie Smollett

March 16, 2022

Jussie Smollett says he is in jail because he’s black

March 13, 2022
Kim Foxx

Kim Foxx criticizes Smollett prosecution team for doing what she failed to accomplish

March 11, 2022
Jussie Smollett

Jussie Smollett defiant as he’s sentenced to jail

March 10, 2022
Load More

Latest Articles

street racer

Street racer who killed young couple to be released after 8 months

September 22, 2023
Anthony Sanchez

Man executed for 1996 rape/murder of University of Oklahoma dance student

September 21, 2023
bus carrying high school band

Bus carrying high school band crashes, rolls down embankment; 2 dead, 4 critical, dozens injured

September 21, 2023
Billy Chemirmir

Convicted murderer believed to be responsible for 22 homicides killed by cellmate

September 21, 2023
Darrin McMichael

Texas motorcycle officer killed in hit-and-run collision

September 21, 2023
Nathaniel Huey (Romeoville Police Department)

Man suspected of killing Illinois family of four found dead from gunshot after police chase, fiery crash in Oklahoma

September 21, 2023
Load More

Weekly E-Newsletter

Subscribe—and get the latest news and editorials direct from Law Officer each week!

[newsletter_form type="minimal"]

JOIN THE FIGHT

BE COURAGEOUS

FIND MORE…

Law Officer

© 2021 LawOfficer.com

LawOfficer.com

  • Home
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Corrections
  • Contact

Speak up for justice, law & order

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Authors
  • Articles
    • Archives
    • Chaplain
    • Crime & Controversy
    • Community
    • Cop Humor
    • Editorial
    • Op-ed
    • Gear & Technology
    • Investigations
    • Laws & Legal
    • Leadership
    • News
    • Officer Down
    • On Duty
    • Tactics
  • Network
    • Illinois Network
    • Minneapolis Network
    • Tulsa Network
    • Wauwatosa Network
    • Learn more
  • Training
  • Officer Privacy
  • Jobs
  • Contact

© 2021 LawOfficer.com