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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 27 March 2019
Attorneys: Prosecutors drop charges against Jussie Smollett

By AMANDA SEITZ pire" and believed it would see the skin around his eyes.
MICHAEL TARM promote his career. Police said Smollett hired
Associated Press The actor, who is black and two men, both of whom
CHICAGO (AP) — Prosecu- gay, plays the gay charac- are black, to attack him.
tors on Tuesday abrupt- ter Jamal Lyon on the hit Smollett allegedly paid the
ly dropped all charges Fox TV show that follows a men $3,500.
against Jussie Smollett, de- black family as they navi- The men are brothers Abim-
fense attorneys said, ap- gate the ups and downs of bola "Abel" and Olabinjo
parently abandoning the the recording industry. "Ola" Osundairo, and one
case barely five weeks af- He reported that he was of them had worked on
ter the "Empire" actor was assaulted on his way home "Empire." An attorney for
accused of lying to police from a sandwich shop. them has said the broth-
about being the target of Actor Jussie Smollett leaves the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Smollett said two masked ers agreed to help Smollett
a racist, anti-gay attack in Chicago on Tuesday March 26, 2019, after prosecutors dropped men shouted racial and because of their friendship
downtown Chicago. all charges against him. anti-gay slurs, poured with him and the sense that
Smollett's attorneys said his Associated Press bleach on him, beat him he was helping their ca-
record had "been wiped and looped a rope around reers.
clean" of the 16 felony lett knew the men and ar- tered their view of events. his neck. He claimed they Police have also said that
counts related to making ranged for them to pretend Smollett was accused of shouted, "This is MAGA before the attack, Smollett
a false report that he was to attack him. falsely reporting to authori- country" — a reference to sent a letter that threat-
assaulted by two men. The Among the unanswered ties that he was attacked President Donald Trump's ened him to the Chicago
actor insisted that he had questions was whether around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29 in "Make America Great studio where "Empire" is
"been truthful and consis- prosecutors still believe downtown Chicago. Inves- Again" campaign slogan. shot. The FBI, which is inves-
tent on every single level Smollett concocted the tigators said he made the He asserted that he could tigating that letter, has de-
since day one." attack or whether new report because he was un- see one of the men was clined to comment on the
"I would not be my mother's evidence emerged that al- happy with his pay on "Em- white because he could investigation.q
son if I was capable of one
drop of what I was being
accused of," he told report-
ers after a court hearing.
He thanked the state of Il-
linois "for attempting to do
what's right."
It was not immediately
clear what prompted the
decision to dismiss the
case. In a statement, the
Cook County prosecutors'
office offered no detailed
explanation.
"After reviewing all of the
facts and circumstances
of the case, including Mr.
Smollett's volunteer ser-
vice in the community and
agreement to forfeit his
bond to the City of Chi-
cago, we believe this out-
come is a just disposition
and appropriate resolution
to this case," the statement
from spokeswoman Tandra
Simonton said.
Smollett paid $10,000 in bail
to get out of jail after his ar-
rest.
Typically, a minimum con-
dition of dropping cases is
some acceptance of re-
sponsibility. Outside court,
neither Smollett nor his le-
gal team appeared to
concede anything about
his original report.
Defense attorney Patricia
Brown Holmes said Smollett
was "attacked by two peo-
ple he was unable to iden-
tify" and "was a victim who
was vilified and made to
appear as a perpetrator."
Authorities alleged Smol-