Actor Jussie Smollett has been convicted guilty on charges of staging an anti-gay, homophobic attack on himself almost three years ago and lying to police about it – Reported on Thursday.
While the court announced its verdict during the trial, Jussie Smollett stood reactionless, and later his family left the place without giving any statement.
The 39-year-old actor who faked the attack was found guilty on 5 counts of misconduct. All five times, he was charged with providing false information to the police after the alleged attack. However, he was freed from the sixth charge of giving wrong information to a detective in Feb, weeks after he was attacked.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb, read the verdict outside the court, “a resounding message by the jury that Mr. Smollett did exactly what we said he did”.
Jussie Smollett “wreaked havoc here in the city for weeks on end for no reason whatsoever then compounded the problem by lying under oath to the jury,” said Webb.
The attorney was confident that the actor would be released with a clear name. Although he was disappointed but “holding up very strong and is committed to clearing his name” he will appeal to the court to review the case.
“Unfortunately we were facing an uphill battle where Jussie was already tried and convicted in the media and then we had to somehow get the jury to forget or unsee all the news stories that they had been hearing that were negative for the last three years,” he addressed the reporters after the court’s decision.
The judge has set another court hearing for the next year, January 27, and will decide at a later date for Smollett’s sentencing. As per the law, disorderly conduct is a class four crime that results in three years of prion sentencing. However, experts said if Jussie Smollett was convicted, he would likely be placed on probation.
The damage caused to Smollett’s personal and professional life is unrecoverable. In fact, he lost his role in the Empire series after it was revealed that the attack case he brought was nothing but a hoax.
“I’ve lost my livelihood,” said Jussie Smollett to the reporters.
