American actor Jussie Smollett was sentenced Thursday to nearly five months in prison by a Chicago court for having staged a racist and homophobic attack in January 2019 of which he claimed to be the victim, which had provoked outrage at the era in the United States.
The 39-year-old African-American and gay comedian was found guilty in December of “planning” the fake attack by paying $3,500 to two Nigerian brothers, and of lying to the police several times. police in their statements.
“You wanted attention, you wanted to be more famous,” said judge James Linn in passing sentence.
He castigated an “arrogant, selfish and narcissistic” defendant who “premeditated to the extreme” a lie that ultimately had the opposite effect.
“You screwed up your life” and “you harmed the real victims of racist crimes,” he explained.
Jussie Smollett will have to serve the first 150 days in prison and will spend a total of 30 months on probation.
He must also reimburse 120,106 dollars corresponding to part of the costs related to the Chicago police investigation and pay a fine of 25,000 dollars.
“I didn’t do that, I’m innocent,” said Jussie Smollett following the sentencing, before leaving the courtroom with a raised fist. He was to be incarcerated on Thursday evening.
“I’m not suicidal, but if something happens to me (in prison), I wouldn’t have inflicted it on myself,” he said.
“He was attacked and he is going to prison,” said one of his brothers, Jocqui, denouncing an “unacceptable” sentence.
Jussie Smollett’s lawyers and family had previously implored Justice Linn’s clemency and requested an alternative sentence to jail time.
His lawyer, Nenye Uche, spoke of the “negative impact (of the case) on his career, finances, family and, most importantly, his reputation”.
“Audience Attention”
The lawyer said he would appeal the sentence.
Fallen star of the hit television series “Empire”, Jussie Smollett has always maintained her innocence.
He claims to have been attacked in the middle of the night on January 29, 2019 in a Chicago street by two masked men, claiming to be supporters of President Donald Trump. They reportedly hit him with racist and homophobic slurs and put a noose around his neck.
According to his lawyers, Jussie Smollett was assaulted by Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, two brothers he met on the set of “Empire”, who were motivated by money and one of whom was homophobic.
But for the accusation, the actor engineered the attack to advance his career by taking advantage of his notoriety.
Jussie Smollett “made the choice to stage a racist crime for his own benefit because he is black and gay,” prosecutor Dan Webb said Thursday.
“And he made the choice to give a false statement to the Chicago police because he wanted the public’s attention,” he added, stressing that he had “not made an act of contrition” and did not “apologize”.
Abimbola Osundairo, a towering amateur boxer, said during the trial that the actor “wanted me to hit him (…), but not too hard”.
Olabinjo Osundairo had for his part detailed how the actor would have told him what insults to utter.
The case had caused a shock in a country still strongly marked by racial and sexual discrimination. The actor had immediately received the support of many personalities from the political and cultural world.
But the images of remote surveillance, the examination of the telephone data of the three men and videos had quickly sown doubt among the investigators who had concluded to a staging.
Then-Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson accused Jussie Smollett of “exploiting the pain and anger that stems from racism.”