{"id":9706,"date":"2019-02-28T18:23:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T18:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=9706"},"modified":"2019-02-28T18:23:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T18:23:05","slug":"jussie-smollett-arrested-for-allegedly-faking-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2019\/02\/28\/jussie-smollett-arrested-for-allegedly-faking-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Jussie Smollett arrested for allegedly faking attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Halle Coleman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

The alleged attack on \u201cEmpire\u201d star Jussie Smollett has developed into a three-week investigation ultimately ending with his arrest.<\/p>\n

Smollett is now being accused of not only lying about his attack, but also being involved with paying for the attack to happen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Google image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Jan. 29, news broke of the initial attack in Chicago. Smollett, who is both black and openly gay, claimed he was attacked around 2 a.m. near his apartment while walking back from Subway by two men.<\/p>\n

He told police that the men yelled racial and homophobic slurs at him, tied a rope around his neck to mimic a noose, and poured bleach onto him. One of the assailants also yelled, \u201cThis is MAGA country,\u201d during the alleged attack.<\/p>\n

The attack was being investigated by Chicago police, and was investigated as a possible hate crime.<\/p>\n

Photos of a visibly bruised Smollett via FaceTime screenshots were released to the media by Empire producer Lee Daniels.<\/p>\n

A week before the reported attack, a letter with a white substance on it arrived at Chicago Cinespace Studio.<\/p>\n

The envelope read \u201cMAGA\u201d in red ink, presumably in reference to President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d slogan.<\/p>\n

The letter contained a homophobic death threat towards Smollett spelled out in cut-up letters. There was also a drawing of a stick figure man with a gun pointed at his head.<\/p>\n

Police later released a photo of the two persons of interest that was captured on surveillance footage.<\/p>\n

Suspicions arose on social media as to why the attack itself was not captured. The two suspects were later identified as Nigerian brothers Ola and Abel Osundairo.<\/p>\n

They claimed that they were paid by Smollett to concoct the hoax. Both brothers told Chicago police that Smollett created the \u201cthreatening letter\u201d himself and used aspirin to create the white residue. When it did not receive the proper reaction, Smollett suggested the staged attack a week later.<\/p>\n

When police searched their home, a magazine with the same font as the letter was discovered.<\/p>\n

Rope, masks, and bleach were also found. Both brothers were released without charge after disclosing their side of the story to police.<\/p>\n

Chicago police claim the questioning of the brothers shifted the trajectory of the investigation.<\/p>\n

It has been determined that Ola Osundairo worked on the set of Empire previously playing a background prisoner.<\/p>\n

Many were shocked to find out that Smollett could have possibly been involved with the attack.<\/p>\n

David Benard, a freshman political science major from Clinton, Miss. expressed his concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe that it\u2019s not ok to lie about anything in the court of law,\u201d he stated, \u201cIt will be held against you and people will look at you as unreliable and undependable. Ultimately they won’t trust you,\u201d said Benard.<\/p>\n

A teary-eyed Smollett appeared on Good Morning America on Feb. 14 to clear his name.\u00a0\u201cAt first, it was like, listen, if I tell the truth, then that\u2019s it, because it\u2019s the truth,\u201d Smollett said, \u201cAnd then it became a thing of like, oh, it\u2019s not necessarily that you don\u2019t believe that this is the truth, you don\u2019t even want to see the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Feb. 21, Smollett was officially arrested on the felony charges of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report.<\/p>\n

Chicago police reported that Smollett paid the two brothers $3,500 to stage the attack because he was unhappy with his salary on Empire.<\/p>\n

Text messages read aloud in court revealed that Smollett gave the brothers $100 to buy the supplies for the attack.<\/p>\n

Smollett\u00a0was ordered to surrender his passport and his bail was set $100,000. He posted bond.<\/p>\n

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has recused herself from the case. First Assistant State\u2019s Attorney Joseph Magats will step in as acting state’s attorney for the investigation.<\/p>\n

As the investigation continues, Smollett has been cut from upcoming \u201cEmpire\u201d episodes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Halle Coleman Staff Writer The alleged attack on \u201cEmpire\u201d star Jussie Smollett has developed into a three-week investigation ultimately ending with his arrest. Smollett is now being accused of not only lying about his attack, but also being involved with paying for the attack to happen. On Jan. 29, news broke of the initial attack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-variety"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}