Jussie Smollett has officially been charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report claiming he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack last month, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department tweeted Wednesday night.
“Felony criminal charges have been approved by @CookCountySAO against Jussie Smollett for Disorderly Conduct / Filing a False Police Report,” wrote Anthony Guglielmi. “Detectives will make contact with his legal team to negotiate a reasonable surrender for his arrest.”
Felony criminal charges have been approved by @CookCountySAO against Jussie Smollett for Disorderly Conduct / Filing a False Police Report. Detectives will make contact with his legal team to negotiate a reasonable surrender for his arrest. pic.twitter.com/LvBSYE2kVj
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) February 21, 2019
The news comes just hours after Guglielmi, the Chief Communications Officer for the Chicago Police, shared that authorities were looking at Smollett as a suspect:
Case Update: Jussie Smollett is now officially classified as a suspect in a criminal investigation by #ChicagoPolice for filing a false police report (Class 4 felony). Detectives are currently presenting evidence before a Cook County Grand Jury. pic.twitter.com/FhDcbBKsuU
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) February 20, 2019
Earlier Wednesday it appeared that the Empire star’s lawyers may have spared him from indictment after a “Hail Mary” call was made to prosecutors that postponed the testimony of brothers Ola and Abel Osundario (above, right).
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Prosecutors anticipate a bail hearing for 1:30 p.m. CT Thursday.
Smollett’s attorney released the following statement:
“Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked. Given these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense.”
truthseeker
I’m predicting 2 possible felonies. The one from CPD and possibly another for mail tampering / terroristic threats from the FBI for the letter he allegedly sent to the Empire studios
He better serve time for this otherwise this entire thing is a joke
Bob LaBlah
The last I heard lying to investigators was a bit more sever than a misdemeanor. He is going to have the book thrown at him.
@DmitriyR
Real presumption of innocence is only for fantastic ideal society
Pete le meat
The Milli Vanilli of hate crimes?
Morrisson
Haha, I am stealing that! Yoink!!
WillFred2
Pete le meat, Most Queertese are too young to understand (or were born after) Milli Vanilli.
Evji108
It takes a particular kind of self destructive stupid to put yourself in this kind of trouble. With yourself like this who needs enemies?
Wicked Dickie
Can we just throw this whole month of February away, please?
Tombear
Smollett makes all gay men look bad. I hope they put him away for the max.
Catholicslutbox
CALLED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CALLED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CALLED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CALLED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CALLED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CALLED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kanaka4127
Smug and gloating. Good for you. You must be so proud. Give this d-bag a prize.
QueerTruth
And what… you’re somehow proud of that? Geez. Why do you want to sound like a loser too?
stanpaske
This just saddens me, He used and abused his position. The sad result is that true victims and targets pay the price of his ego. Their stories become less and harder to prove. We see true stories and charges get less importance, have to fight for importance or justification because of false stories. One bad apple makes every other work harder. He has hurt every victim of rape, race, gender, orientation, etc to have to truly prove validation. His self importance or worth has caused all of us to have to work 100% harder for validation. I grieve for those true victims that cannot find justice because our voice was diminished for his selfish gain. True victims will have to endure pain. There is no justice to correct that loss.
Kangol
Oh come on now! The Chicago cop who shot unarmed Laquan McDonald dead on tape was able to get away with it for three years, as the mayor of Chicago (a Democrat) and the department covered up for him. It is always difficult to get many people to believe rapes occurred, or attacks based on people’s race, gender, orientation, and so on. ALWAYS. Always has been, always will be. I mean, the President of the United States admitted on tape that he groped women and forcibly kissed them, and people still didn’t believe it nor has he suffered a single penalty as a result. Not one. And that’s only one of multiple alleged attacks, including claims of rape, against him. The issue isn’t one attention-hungry stunt queen, it’s that our society still is not equal, and his BS isn’t going to shift that one way or the other.
Jboo
Are we taking votes as to how many queerty editors shit bricks after the formal charges came out? (Lookin’ at you Jeremy Helligar – Mr. “Make America Hate Again”).
Brian
I’m sure they’re writing an article apologizing for their shameful reporting of this story as we speak. And going forward, I have no doubt they will be much more aware of the harm that comes from presenting allegations as 100% inalienable fact. And certainly someone is coming up with a new tagline, since they have shown how much of a lie their current one is.
Either that or they are having puppy and play dough therapy for the staff today while deleting all of the old articles and pretending it never happened.
jkb
Yesterday’s story about him possibly avoiding indictment confused me when it had become obvious there was no other outcome.
ggore
The whole thing was sketchy from day one. And he really incriminated himself at the outset when made such a huge deal out of refusing to allow the police to access his phone, claiming he had “business contacts, texts and emails” on it that he did not want to get out. When he did finally let them have access, everything was heavily redacted. All this indicates that he had neglected to remove evidence of communications he had had with the supposed “perpetrators” of the attack about arranging it and carrying it out. Very careless on his part and the probable cause of his downfall.
ggore
The whole thing was sketchy from day one. And he really incriminated himself at the outset when made such a huge deal out of refusing to allow the police to access his phone, claiming he had business contacts, texts and emails on it that he did not want to get out. When he did finally let them have access, everything was heavily redacted. All this indicates that he had neglected to remove evidence of communications he had had with the supposed “perpetrators” of the attack about arranging it and carrying it out. Very careless on his part and the probable cause of his downfall.
Rex Huskey
what a sad and lonely person he must be….. and more to come
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Hate to wish bad on member of Gay community, but this Dbag had success and place in life very few straight and even less Gays attain.
His vile actions have harmed our community on multiple levels. Those genuinely victims of Gay hate crimes and giving fodder to those who spew hatred and now with this Administration have the ability to do serious harm to us ..
Hoping Jussie gets just deserts…
Chevelter
Victmhood is a fast track to social media fame these days. I never heard of him before this. But I think it also goes deeper than personal attention. I think he wanted to make a point about the culture that Trump is encouraging. He just made it 10 times worse though.
Kangol
Jussie Smollett is going to pay dearly. If he has any sense left at all, he ought to apologize profusely, starting right about now!
mr guy
The epitome and endpoint of the culture of elevating victimhood to the status of quasi-religious supreme virtue wherein grievance, real of manufactured, is its most prized currency. This scumbag literally tried to gain personal advantage be it financial, professional, political.. by deliberately stoking racial animosity and setting out to make us all more fearful..and 100% certain he was untouchable in this climate. Thankfully in some quarters common sense still just about prevails.
Lock him up
Chevelter
It turns out I was wrong in my comment above. There was nothing political about his hoax. He wanted a raise at work. According to Huffington Post Smollett was paid $65,000 per episode for the most recent season of his show. (18 episodes)
Toofie
Hey, I’ll gladly work for 65,000 a week on an ensemble show!
CobraPowers
He should issue a public apology for trying to spread hatred and division, and so should every politician and celebrity who pushed this Fake News story with the intention of demonizing 60+ million people, which includes many LGBT people tired of the cooked up hatred.