Jussie Smollett accused of filing false police report – Variety



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Actor "Empire" Jussie Smollett was accused of filing a false police report, the Chicago police said Wednesday.

"The inspectors will contact his legal team to negotiate a reasonable surrender for his arrest," police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said on Twitter.

Smollett is scheduled to appear in court for a bail hearing at 1:30 pm Thursday, according to the Cook County Prosecutor's Office.

In a statement, Smollett's lawyers, Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson, said they would defend the charge aggressively.

"Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett benefits from the presumption of innocence, especially when there has been an investigation like this where information, both true and false, has been disclosed to the public. many times, "said Pugh and Henderson. "In these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and set up an aggressive defense."

The police said earlier that she was presenting evidence before a grand jury. Smollett could be sentenced to a term of one to three years imprisonment if he was convicted of the crime, although he could also be sentenced to probation.

Smollett told the police on January 29 that he had been attacked by two men who had poured him with bleach, put a rope around his neck and used racist slurs and homophobic. The police searched the surveillance cameras in the area and could not find any images of the attack. They were able to find two brothers, Abel and Ola Osundairo, who were close to the event.

The brothers were arrested last week and interrogated for two days. Local media reported that they had informed the detectives that Smollett had paid them to carry out the attack. The two brothers were spotted Wednesday by journalists at the grand jury of Cook County.

Smollett's lawyers denied having organized the attack, claiming that the charge constituted a new victimization.

Fox did not comment on the latest developments, but issued a statement earlier in the day on Wednesday alongside Smollett.

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