Case against Smollett keys on how ‘hoax’ unraveled
CHICAGO — Jussie Smollett, who is accused of lying to police when he reported he was the victim of racist and homophobic attack in downtown Chicago, appeared troubled when he was told that a surveillance camera did not record the alleged assault, a police detective testified Wednesday.
Chicago police detective Kimberly Murray described how she took a report from the former “Empire” actor the morning of the January 2019 attack at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was being treated for injuries that Murray described as “minor.” Smollett said two men — one white and wearing a ski mask, the other he couldn’t see — assaulted him as he was returning home after buying a sandwich.
Murray said Smollett — who said he had received a threatening phone call days earlier — refused to hand over his cellphone, which the detective said could help police piece together a timeline of what happened, and he wouldn’t consent to giving medical records or a DNA swab.
She also said Smollett was “upset” when she told him a surveillance camera in the area didn’t capture the alleged attack because it was pointed away from the scene. Murray said she explained to the actor that the cover on the pod camera makes it impossible to know which way it is pointing.
A lead investigator in the case, Michael Theis, said Tuesday that two brothers who worked with Smollett on the Chicago set of “Empire” later detailed for police how the actor orchestrated the hoax and they participated in it. They said Smollett told them via text message to meet him “on the low,” paid for supplies including a clothesline later fashioned into a noose, and took them for a “dry run” in downtown Chicago prior to the alleged attack.
Theis, who is now assistant director for research and development for the Chicago
Police Department, said roughly two dozen detectives clocked some 3,000 hours on the investigation, rebutting a defense attorney’s statement that they rushed to judgment. He said police were excited when they were able to track the movements of two suspected attackers using surveillance video, cellphone records and reports from ride-sharing services.
“The crime was a hate crime, a horrible hate crime,” Theis said, noting Smollett — who is Black and gay — reported that his attackers put a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him.