Jussie Smollett, Upset Over Salary, Staged Assault, Police Say - The New York Times

Jussie Smollett, Upset Over Salary, Staged Assault, Police Say

Image

Jussie Smollett in the booking photo taken Thursday morning after he was arrested on a charge of having filed a false police report.CreditCreditChicago Police Department, via Associated Press

By Sopan Deb and Jack Healy

Feb. 21, 2019

CHICAGO — Jussie Smollett, upset by his salary and seeking publicity, staged a fake assault on himself a week after writing himself a threatening letter, the Chicago police said Thursday after the “Empire” actor surrendered to face a felony charge of filing a false police report.

The Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson, visibly angry at a morning news conference, said Mr. Smollett had taken advantage of the pain and anger of racism, draining resources that could have been used to investigate other crimes for which people were actually suffering.

“I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention,” he said, referring to the news media.

The police say the staged assault was carried out by two brothers to whom the actor had paid $3,500 and that they have a copy of the check Mr. Smollett used to pay them. Also recovered, they said, were phone records that showed Mr. Smollett speaking to the brothers an hour before Mr. Smollett said the incident took place, and an hour after that time.

Superintendent Johnson declined to indicate why investigators now believe that Mr. Smollett had also played the chief role in the mailing of a threatening letter he received. The letter, which arrived a week before the reported assault, contained a harmless white powder and a sketch of what appeared to be a man being hanged. According to Mr. Smollett, the return address said “MAGA,” a reference to a slogan from President Trump’s campaign.

Superintendent Johnson referred further comment about the letter to the F.B.I., which is investigating that part of the case. The agency declined to comment.

The superintendent seemed particularly upset that Mr. Smollett had arranged, he said, a fake assault that included a noose around his neck.

“Why would anyone — especially an African-American man — use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations?” he asked. “How could someone look at the hatred and suffering associated with that symbol and see an opportunity to manipulate that symbol to further his own public profile?”

A representative for Mr. Smollett did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. The actor, who surrendered to the authorities on Thursday morning, has maintained that the attack occurred and that he has not done anything wrong. He is scheduled to appear for an afternoon bail hearing on the disorderly conduct charge, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

After his arrest, the reversal in public opinion for Mr. Smollett was quick and damaging. The report of the attack had spurred a national outpouring of support, including from Democratic presidential candidates and President Trump, who called the incident “horrible.”

On Thursday, celebrities, including Michael B. Jordan and Tracee Ellis Ross, who had initially supported Mr. Smollett, began taking down their social media posts from the aftermath of the attack.

Mr. Trump said in a post on Twitter, “.@JussieSmollett - what about MAGA and the tens of millions of people you insulted with your racist and dangerous comments!? #MAGA.”

Fox, the network that airs “Empire,” released a statement Thursday saying it was evaluating the situation and the network’s options. “We understand the seriousness of this matter and we respect the legal process,” the statement said.

Video

A Chicago police superintendent said Jussie Smollett, who was arrested on a charge of having filed a false police report, “took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.”CreditCreditAshlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times, via Associated Press

Mr. Smollett’s salary is not publicly known, but it was not immediately apparent that he has had any clashes with executives of Fox, who as recently as Wednesday issued a statement highly supportive of the actor, who it called a “consummate professional.”

At their news conference, the police officials unveiled much of what they had uncovered about the reported attack. Mr. Smollett, who is black and openly gay, had told the police that at roughly 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, two masked men attacked him on the 300 block of East Lower North Water Street in downtown Chicago. He said his assailants directed homophobic and racial slurs at him, put a rope around his neck and poured a chemical substance on him. Mr. Smollett said the assault occurred after he went to pick up food.

A detective commander, Edward Wodnicki, said at the news conference, that investigators interviewed Mr. Smollett at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and found he had scratches on his face, some bruising, but no serious injuries.

The investigators approached the case as a possible hate crime, but had difficulty finding evidence to match Mr. Smollett’s account. The attack was not visible on surveillance cameras and there were no witnesses.

Days into their inquiry, investigators released a surveillance image of two men thought to be potential persons of interest, now known to be two brothers who have said they helped stage a fake attack.

Police said they had found the brothers using surveillance footage that showed them taking a cab from the area of the reported assault. Investigators tracked the cab, interviewed the driver, and identified the passengers as Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, two brothers and associates of Mr. Smollett’s.

One had worked as an extra on “Empire” and Mr. Smollett later acknowledged that he had paid money to have one of them train him for a music video.

The men flew to Nigeria soon after the incident, the police said, and spoke on the phone with Mr. Smollett while they were away. And they were met by investigators upon their return to Chicago on Feb. 13 and detained for two days.

Commander Wodnicki said that a lawyer for the brothers, Gloria Schmidt, came to him and said: “You really need to talk to these guys. I’m going to allow them to give you a video interview with us present and we’re going to have you hear their story. They are not offenders. They are victims.”

The men acknowledged being paid to participate in the reported assault, the investigators said. While the brothers seemed to have punched Mr. Smollett, Superintendent Johnson said, “as far as we can tell, the scratches and bruising that you saw in his face was most likely self-inflicted.”

After the interview with the brothers, the detectives released them without charges as they looked for further evidence to corroborate their account. Asked about that decision Thursday, Superintendent Johnson said: “Mr. Smollett is the one who orchestrated this crime. They became cooperating witnesses.”

Almost from the beginning there was some skepticism about Mr. Smollett’s account. It grew as time progressed, though the police for weeks insisted that the actor was being viewed as a victim. Mr. Smollett acknowledged the suspicions in his first public statement about the incident, on Feb. 1, when he said through his publicist: “I am working with authorities and have been 100 percent factual and consistent on every level. Despite my frustrations and deep concern with certain inaccuracies and misrepresentations that have been spread, I still believe that justice will be served.”

In a “Good Morning America” interview, broadcast on Feb. 14, Mr. Smollett said: “It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim, or a Mexican, or someone black, I feel like the doubters would have supported me much more.”

Those kinds of appeals for public sympathy appeared to particularly irk Superintendent Johnson.

“Absolute justice would be an apology to this city that he smeared,” he said at the news conference. “Admitting what he did and then be man enough to offer what he should offer up in terms of all the resources that were put into this.”