Trial set to start on charges Smollett faked racist attack

CHICAGO (AP):

A popular actor steps out on to the street and is brutally reminded that, despite his fame and wealth, places still exist where the colour of his skin and sexual orientation put him in danger.

That was the story that ricocheted around the world after Jussie Smollett, a black and openly gay actor, reported to Chicago police that he was the victim of a hate crime.

Nearly three years later, Smollett is about to stand trial on charges that he staged the whole thing.

He was charged with felony disorderly conduct after law enforcement and prosecutors said he lied to police about what happened in the early morning hours of January 29, 2019, in downtown Chicago. He has pleaded not guilty. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Monday. Disorderly conduct, a class four felony, carries a sentence of up to three years in prison, but experts have said it is more likely that if Smollett is convicted, he would be placed on probation and perhaps ordered to perform community service.

Smollett told police he was walking home from a Subway sandwich shop at 2 a.m. when two men, who, he said recognised him from the TV show Empire, began hurling racial and homophobic slurs at him. He said the men struck him, looped a makeshift noose around his neck and shouted, “This is MAGA country,” a reference to then President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, ‘Make America Great Again’.

ALLEGEDLY HIRED TWO BROTHERS

Just weeks later came the stunning announcement that Smollett was charged with staging the attack to further his career and secure a higher salary. And, police said, he hired two brothers from Nigeria to pretend to attack him for US$3,500.

This made the spotlight on Smollett shine even brighter, but this time he was vilified as someone willing to use one of the most potent symbol of racism in the US to further his career.

Then came the anger that Smollett’s fame accorded him influence that is out of reach for most. Reports indicated that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx communicated with a member of Smollett’s family early in the investigation at the request of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s one-time chief of staff. Foxx recused herself from the case, then her office suddenly dropped the charges, and Foxx found herself at the centre of a media firestorm as she refuted the suggestion that her office gave the television star a break.

All that set the stage for what turned a simple question of Smollett’s innocence or guilt into a convoluted legal saga that has dragged on for nearly three years.

The trial was delayed in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought cases around the country to a halt for months. But, also, charges were filed, dropped and filed again by a special prosecutor who was brought in to take over the case.

Smollett – whose career has since faded – will this week return to the glare of the media spotlight, but this time as he passes the forest of news cameras as he makes his way to and from the court.

The producers of Empire, on which he starred for four years, renewed his contract for the sixth and final season in 2019, but he never appeared in an episode. Nor has he released any music or given significant musical performances.

He has, however, directed an independent film funded by his own production company that is premièring at the American Black Film Festival this month. The movie, B-Boy Blues, is an adaptation of a 1994 novel, the first in a series, about the lives of gay black men in New York.

But once in court, what will unfold will be what may sound like a bad movie, for the simple reason that a short movie is exactly what authorities have long maintained Smollett was trying to create.

The key witnesses will be the brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who say Smollett wrote them a cheque to stage the attack. They are expected to characterise Smollett as the star and director of an ‘attack’ in full view of a surveillance camera that he mistakenly believed would record the whole event.