CHICAGO, March 10 (Reuters) – A Chicago courtroom on Thursday sentenced actor Jussie Smollett, one-time star of the TV drama “Empire,” to 30 months probation and 150 days in jail for staging a hate crime towards himself.
A jury in December discovered Smollett, 39, responsible of 5 of the six felony disorderly conduct counts he confronted, one for every time he was accused of mendacity to police.
On Thursday, Prepare dinner County Circuit Courtroom Decide James Linn additionally ordered Smollett to pay over $120,000 in restitution and fined him $25,000.
“I do know that there’s nothing that I’ll do right here in the present day that may come near the harm you have already finished to your individual life,” stated Linn. “You’ve got destroyed your life as you knew it.”
Smollett’s performing profession declined after the incident. He misplaced his function as a singer-songwriter within the ultimate season of “Empire,” a Fox tv hip-hop drama that ended a five-year run in 2020.
He has the proper to enchantment and stated in courtroom on Thursday that he was harmless.
Actor Jussie Smollett speaks to Decide James Linn after his sentence is learn on the Leighton Prison Courtroom Constructing, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., March 10, 2022. Brian Cassella/Pool by way of REUTERS
Prosecutors stated Smollett, who’s Black and homosexual, lied to police when he advised them he was accosted on a darkish Chicago avenue by two masked strangers in January 2019.
Smollett claimed the attackers threw a noose round his neck and poured chemical compounds on him whereas yelling racist and homophobic slurs and expressions of assist for former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Police arrested the actor a month later, saying he paid two brothers $3,500 to stage the assault in an effort to lift his show-business profile. He ultimately pleaded not responsible to 6 counts of felony disorderly conduct.
His case took an sudden flip in spring 2019 when the Prepare dinner County state’s lawyer’s workplace dropped a 16-count indictment towards him in change for Smollett forfeiting his $10,000 bond with out admitting wrongdoing.
The dismissal drew criticism from then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago’s police superintendent, who referred to as the reversal a miscarriage of justice.
In 2019, a particular prosecutor assigned to the case really helpful charging Smollett once more and a grand jury returned an indictment.
Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Extra reporting by Costas Pitas; Enhancing by Mark Porter and Tom Hogue
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