Legal analyst Emily D. Baker on Jussie Smollett verdict

(10 Dec 2021) Former ``Empire'' actor Jussie Smollett  was convicted Thursday (09DEC.2021) on charges he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself nearly three years ago and then lied to Chicago police about it.

In the courtroom as the verdict was read, Smollett stood and faced the jury, showing no visible reaction. He and his family later left the courthouse without comment.

The jury found the 39-year-old guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct  _ for each separate time he was charged with lying to police in the days immediately after the alleged attack. He was acquitted on a sixth count, of lying to a detective in mid-February, weeks after Smollett said he was attacked.

Legal Analyst and former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney Emily D. Baker told The Associated Press, "Because we haven't heard from the jurors we can only assume that they believed the prosecution's side of the case with that guilty verdict and that would go to everything from the over 3,000 hours and man hours that went in from Chicago P.D. to evidence that he had met with the brothers beforehand and perhaps staged out this event in the nights before to the check of over $3500 that was paid that the prosecution says was paid for staging this attack and the defense was saying was paid for nutritional counseling and meal plans."

Outside court, special prosecutor Dan Webb called the verdict ``a resounding message by the jury that Mr. Smollett did exactly what we said he did.''

Smollett ``wreaked havoc here in the city for weeks on end for no reason whatsoever,`` then compounded the problem by lying under oath to the jury, Webb said.

Defense attorney Nenye Uche said Smollett would appeal the conviction. He maintained Smollett is ``100% innocent'' and expressed confidence the actor would be cleared by an appellate court.

Judge James Linn set a post-trial hearing for Jan. 27, and said he would schedule Smollett's sentencing at a later date. Disorderly conduct is a class 4 felony that carries a prison sentence of up to three years.

Baker noted that there is also a lawsuit from the city of Chicago against Jussie Smollett. "Not only is there this criminal proceeding where he's now been found guilty but that's going to substantially impact the civil proceeding where the city of Chicago is suing for the cost of the investigation," she said.

Baker also commented on the defense attorneys' plans to appeal. She said, "They believe this verdict is contradictory because the jury convicted him of lying on five counts but not on the sixth so they think this verdict is in contradiction with each other. I think that because you have the counts being separated by different dates, that the jury could have reasonably found that on those first interactions with police there was misleading and then that last interaction with police either wasn't misleading or wasn't significantly misleading and did not find it guilty there. I don't think it's at odds  as much as the defense might like it to be for their case on appeal."

Smollett lost his role on the TV program ``Empire'' after prosecutors said the alleged attack was a hoax, and he told jurors earlier this week, ``I've lost my livelihood.''

In closing arguments on Wednesday, Webb told jurors there was ``overwhelming evidence'' that Smollett staged the attack, then lied to police about it for publicity. He said Smollett caused Chicago police to spend enormous resources investigating what they believed was a hate crime, and that surveillance video contradicted key moments of Smollett's testimony.

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