Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has been arrested for allegedly filing a false police report claiming he was the victim of a hate-crime attack in Chicago, a police spokesman said early Thursday.
Smollett was charged Wednesday with felony disorderly conduct for the allegedly false report he made with Chicago police on Jan. 29, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. In it he claimed he was assaulted by two masked men who hurled racist and homophobic slurs.
The actor, 36, who is black and gay, also said his attackers poured what he believed was bleach over him and put a noose around his neck.
Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Smollett was in the custody of detectives, who had earlier contacted Smollett’s legal team “to negotiate a reasonable surrender for his arrest.” He could face probation or up to three years in prison if convicted, a Cook County State’s Attorney office spokeswoman told NBC Chicago.
The actor is due in court for a bond hearing at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
The announcement of charges on Wednesday night came after Smollett’s attorneys talked with prosecutors in the morning, according to police.
In a statement released after Smollett was charged, his attorneys said he “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,” the statement from attorneys Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson said.
Meanwhile, the top prosecutor in the Chicago area, Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx, has recused herself from the case.
The state’s attorney stepped away from the matter because she had “had conversations with a family member of Jussie Smollett about the incident and their concerns, and facilitated a connection to the Chicago Police Department,” a spokesperson for the office said.
Foxx’s first assistant prosecutor, Joe Magats, will handle the case.
Police investigated the reported attack as a “possible hate crime,” and some celebrities, including “Empire” cast members, and gay-rights advocates flocked to social media to express their support for Smollett.
But some other social media users began to question his claims when police said they were not able to find video of the incident after going through a plethora of footage from many surveillance cameras in the affluent Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, where the attack allegedly occurred.
Guglielmi told NBC News that the investigation into the alleged attack has demanded “considerable” police resources. He said that at one point the department had 12 detectives scouring surveillance videos.
On Jan. 30, police released pictures from a surveillance camera located near where Smollett said he was attacked that showed two men who police said were “potential persons of interest.”
The two men were taken into custody on Feb. 13 and questioned. They were released two days later, on Friday, without charges. Police said the two, who are brothers, were no longer suspects in the case and were cooperating in the probe.
Image: Suspects in attack of actor Jussie SmollettPersons of interest in the alleged racist and homophobic attack of actor Jussie Smollett as released by the Chicago Police Dept.Chicago Police Dept
On Saturday, a police source said the probe had shifted into whether the actor had paid the two brothers, Ola and Abel Osundairo, to stage an assault. Investigators had discovered that the brothers had purchased the rope used in the alleged attack.
NBC News
