Jussie Smollet found guilty
While the court presented the results of the trial, Smollett only observed. Judge said the trial would continue through conference calls
U.S. actor Jussie Smollett, 36, has been found guilty of five of the six charges of falsifying a racist attack on himself in 2019. The trial began on Monday and was filled with witness statements, legal hearings, and deliberations of evidence, Fox News reports.
Jussie is accused of falsely reporting to police in 2019 that he was attacked and insulted by two masked men for race and sexual orientation. In addition, as he claimed at least at the time, they physically attacked him, tied a noose around his neck, and sprinkled him with an unknown chemical.
Charges of Jussie Smollet
The first charge accuses the actor of knowingly lying to a police officer about a racist attack, to whom he then said that two attackers put a noose around his neck. The second accusation is related to the fact that the actor claimed that the attackers doused him with an unknown chemical.
The third and fourth charges are the same as the previous ones but are related to another police officer to whom he also lied. The fifth charge is again related to lying about a chemical attack. The only charge he was not found guilty of is that he lied to a detective that he was seriously injured after the attack.
While the court presented the results of the trial, Smollett only observed it stoically, without showing too much emotion. Judge Lynn said the trial would continue through conference calls as well as sanctions to be discussed. His lawyers have revealed they will appeal the court's decision.
Recall, Jussie was previously charged with 16 counts of false reporting to police.
According to police, the two brothers, Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, admitted that Smollett paid them 3,500,000 dollars, to stage the attack because he was not satisfied with the amount of his salary. Local reporters found surveillance camera footage of the two brothers buying items allegedly used in the scam, including a red cap and face masks. Likewise, Jussie reportedly sent a threatening, racist letter to himself.
After this scandal, the actor was expelled from the cast of the series 'Empire'.
