Jussie Smollett could be prosecuted for alleged attack hoax

21 June 2019

Jussie Smollett could be prosecuted for allegedly staging a homophobic and racist attack on himself, despite his case being dismissed.

Jussie Smollett

The 'Empire' star was told in March he wouldn't be charged over allegations he orchestrated a racist and homophobic attack on himself in January, but now a Chicago judge has ordered a special prosecutor to be appointed to review the way the case was handled.

According to TMZ, the judge said in his order: "If reasonable grounds exist to further prosecute Smollett, in the interest of justice the special prosecutor may take such action."

The judge also said "unprecedented irregularities identified in this case" warrants the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Jussie was previously indicted on 16 felony counts of lying to police, after he alleged he was attacked by two men who beat him and put a rope around his next while yelling racial and homophobic slurs.

The actor had all charges against him dropped in March, but the decision prompted the City of Chicago to demand he hand over a whopping $130,000 to compensate for the overtime pay for police who investigated his case.

In April, after he refused to pay, the City decided to file a lawsuit against him, which could see him face a trial for allegedly staging the attack.

In the lawsuit, the City alleged that Jussie had been friends with one of his alleged attackers, Abel Osundairo, since 2017, and claimed he contacted Abel shortly before the attack to ask him for "help on the low".

The lawsuit claimed Jussie then set up the attack with Abel and his brother Ola, and the group agreed Abel would attack Jussie but would not hurt him too badly and would give Jussie a chance to appear to fight back.

The papers alleged Jussie intentionally misled officers into believing his attackers were white, when he knew otherwise, and accused him of wasting police resources on investigating the alleged attack.

The City said the cost of investigating the case was at least $130,000 in overtime alone, but it wants hundreds of thousands of dollars on top of that to cover attorneys fees and additional expenses.