Actor charged with hate-crime hoax

By Kevin Beese For Chronicle Media

Jussie Smollett

Actor Jussie Smollett may have been less than an hour away from pulling off his alleged attack hoax, according to Chicago police.

It was during the 47th hour of the 48-hour maximum that individuals can be held without being charged that two brothers admitted to the staged incident, according to Cmdr. Edward Wodnicki, head of Area Central detectives for the Chicago Police Department.

“It was at that point the case started to spin in a new direction,” Wodnicki said Thursday morning at a press conference, hours after Smollett, 36, turned himself in at the 1st District police station.

The actor on the “Empire” TV series was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report in connection with his claims in January that he was the victim of a hate crime.

Smollett told officers that at about 2 a.m. Jan. 29 two men approached him on the 300 block of East North Water Street. He said the offenders beat him, poured bleach on him, placed a noose around his neck and yelled out homophobic, racial and political slurs.

Smollett, who is black and gay, said the offenders were wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and shouted that “This is MAGA country.”

Chicago police Supt. Eddie Johnson said the three weeks of attention the case got was a black eye for the city.

“It was a scar that Chicago didn’t deserve and didn’t earn,” Johnson said, calling Smollett “a troubled young man.”

Johnson said he hoped that Smollett would stand up and own what he allegedly did.

“I would hope he would apology to the city he smeared … and be man enough to offer up coverage of our resources,” Johnson said.

Wodnicki admitted that officers were close to releasing the brothers, one of whom has worked with Smollett on “Empire,” without being charged. Their testimony, however, turned them from persons of interest to witnesses, the police commander said.

Johnson said that Smollett paid the brothers $3,500 to stage the incident “because he was not satisfied with his salary.” The police superintendent said Smollett concocted the plan and talked to the brothers via phone both before and after the incident and when the brothers were in Nigeria for two weeks following the incident.

Johnson said the brothers hit Smollett a little in the staged incident, but believed the scratches and bruises Smollett sustained were self-inflicted.

“To put the national spotlight on this city for something that was egregious and untrue is shameful,” Johnson said.

He said that he is concerned now that hate crimes reported in Chicago will be met with a layer of skepticism that is unwarranted.

It was looking at hours of video evidence combined with “old-fashioned police work” that unearthed the truth, Johnson said. More than 100 interviews, 35 police cameras and 20 private sector security cameras were used to piece together the brothers’ actions both before and after the staged incident. Footage showing the brothers using a ride-share vehicle before taking a taxi to the scene of the hoax gave police information about the individuals’ identity, Wodnicki said. Knowing the individuals’ identity let police know that the two had hopped on an airplane at O’Hare International Airport bound for Nigeria after the incident and that they would return Feb. 13.

“While waiting for their return, we obtain over 50 search warrants and subpoenas for phone records and social media record to illuminate the likely facts that occurred,” Wodnicki said.

He said on Feb. 13, a team of officers took the brothers into custody upon their arrival back in the country.

The brothers’ attorney came to police saying “something smelled fishy” about their story and that she truly did not think they were the offenders as Smollett had reported, according to Wodnicki.

“You really need to talk to these guys,” Wodnicki said the lawyer told them. “She allowed us to do video interviews where we discovered they were not offenders, but victims.”

Johnson said that police have the check that Smollett used to pay the brothers.

The police superintendent did not mince words when giving the reaction of police when they found out the whole incident was a ruse.

“It pissed everybody off,” Johnson said.

He said the incident was an unwarranted drain on manpower.

“We don’t have any room for hatred in the city,” Johnson said. “To use this for personal gain is shameful. We had to take away resources from other crimes.”

Johnson did add, however, that no manpower investigating murders or shootings in the city was pulled away to investigate the Smollett case.

 

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