The former Empire actor Jussie Smollett was found guilty on five of six charges of disorderly conduct on Thursday for orchestrating a fake attack on himself and then lying to Chicago police about it.
The jury deliberated about eight hours on Wednesday and Thursday after a roughly one-week trial in which two brothers gave evidence that Smollett had recruited them to fake the attack near his home in Chicago in January 2019.
They said Smollett orchestrated the hoax, telling them to put a noose around his neck and rough him up in view of a surveillance camera, and that he said he wanted video of the hoax made public via social media.
The jury then found him guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct — for each separate time he was charged with lying to police in the days immediately after the alleged attack. He was acquitted on a sixth count, of lying to a detective in mid-February, weeks after Smollett said he was attacked.
Defense attorney Nenye Uche said Smollett would appeal the conviction. He maintained Smollett is “100 per cent innocent” and expressed confidence the actor would be cleared by an appellate court.
His lawyers argued that the brothers attacked the actor — who is gay and black — because they are homophobic and did not like “who he was".
Judge James Linn set a post-trial hearing for January 27, and said he would schedule Smollett’s sentencing at a later date.
The disorderly conduct charge is a class 4 felony that carries a prison sentence of up to three years, but experts have said if Smollett is convicted, he would likely be placed on probation and ordered to perform community service.
Smollett asserted that he was the victim of a real hate crime, telling jurors “there was no hoax".
He called the brothers “liars” and said the $3,500 check he wrote them was for meal and workout plans.
The lawyers also alleged the brothers made up the story about the attack being staged to get money from Smollett and that they said they would not give evidence against him if Smollett paid them each $1 million.
In his closing argument on Wednesday, special prosecutor Dan Webb told the jury that Smollett caused Chicago police to spend enormous resources investigating a reportedly fake crime.
“Besides being against the law, it is just plain wrong to outright denigrate something as serious as a real hate crime and then make sure it involved words and symbols that have such historical significance in our country,” Mr Webb said.
He also accused Smollett of lying to jurors, saying surveillance video from before the alleged attack and that night contradicts key moments of Smollett’s evidence.
Defence lawyer Nenye Uche called the brothers “sophisticated liars” who may have been motivated to attack Smollett because of homophobia or because they wanted to be hired to work as his security.
“These guys want to make money,” he said.
Mr Webb asked why Smollett did not turn over his mobile phone to police or give them a DNA sample or access to his medical records to help with the investigation. Smollett said he did not trust Chicago police and that he was concerned about his privacy.
“If he was a true victim of a crime, he would not be withholding evidence,” Mr Webb said.
Mr Uche called it “nonsense” for Chicago police to ask Smollett for his DNA when he was still considered the victim of a crime. He noted Smollett later provided DNA to the FBI for a separate investigation into hate mail he had received at the Empire studio shortly before the alleged attack.
“He wasn’t hiding anything,” Mr Uche said.
