Smollett pleads not guilty
Charges of staging phony attack restored
CHICAGO — Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett pleaded not guilty Monday to restored charges that accuse him of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself last year in Chicago and falsely reporting to police that the phony attack was real.
His lawyer, Tina Glandian, entered the not guilty pleas on his behalf to six counts of felony disorderly conduct. She also told Judge James B. Linn that she has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to halt the case.
A somber looking Smollett, 37, entered the Cook County courthouse wearing sunglasses and sporting a beard, flanked by his legal team and surrounded by reporters.
“He’s obviously frustrated to be dragged through this process again,” Glandian told reporters after the hearing.
Police have alleged Smollett staged the attack to get attention and further his career.
Smollett, who is black and gay, told police that two masked men attacked him as he was walking home in the early hours of
Jan. 29, 2019. He said they made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and looped a noose around his neck before fleeing, and that at least one of his attackers was a white man who told him he was in “MAGA country,” a reference to President Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
Police alleged weeks later that Smollett had paid two black friends to help stage the attack because he was was unhappy with his salary as an actor on “Empire,” a Fox series filmed in Chicago that follows a black family as they navigate the ups and downs of the recording industry.
The friends, brothers Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo, were among those who attended Monday’s proceedings. If Smollett’s case makes it to trial, they would be the state’s star witnesses. The brothers are bodybuilders and aspiring actors whom Smollett knew from the “Empire” set and the gym.
Smollett pleaded not guilty last year, just weeks before Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office abruptly announced it was dismissing the case, angering police and City Hall. Foxx’s handling of the case has become an issue in her bid for re-election.
Glandian called the revived prosecution “an ordeal” for Smollett.
Smollett’s attorneys also have filed a motion in Cook County court arguing that the refiling of charges violated protections against being charged twice for the same crime, known as double jeopardy. Prosecutors have said double jeopardy does not apply because Smollett was not prosecuted last year.