Friday, March 29, 2024

Jussie Smollett: Judge Says Actor Can Travel Before Trial

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A Chicago judge said Jussie Smollett can travel out-of-state to New York and California to meet his lawyers while he’s free on bond.

Smollett is facing disorderly conduct charges for filing a false police report after claiming two masked men attacked him, hurled racial and homophobic slurs and wrapped a noose around his neck. No one believes his tale — from the investigators to his “Empire” co-stars, and now Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson says Smollett “still has the presumption of innocence and he still has his opportunity in court if he chooses to go that route.”

But, as he noted “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts on Monday, “there’s a lot more evidence that hasn’t been presented yet that doesn’t support the version that he gave us. There’s still a lot of video evidence, physical evidence and testimony that doesn’t support what he said happened.”

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jussie smollett

Johnson told Roberts detectives considered Smollett a victim up until they detained and questions the two Nigerian brothers who are allegedly connection to the case.

“I refused to characterize Jussie Smollett as a suspect unless we had concrete evidence,” Johnson said. “The 47th hour that we had those two individuals in custody is when it changed.”

He added, “We worked very closely with their lawyer, and (she) went in there to talk to them, and whatever she said to them apparently got through to them – to just tell the truth about what happened,” Johnson said. “And that’s what they decided to do.”

During a press conference led by Johnson last week, he said Smollett “staged” the attack as a “publicity stunt,” because he was “dissatisfied” over his “Empire” salary.

When asked about Smollett using a noose to make an alleged false hate crime accusation during Black History Month, Johnson told Roberts, “The city of Chicago and the Chicago police department has its issues with racism and excessive force and all of that, and I’m acutely aware of that. But we didn’t earn this particular incident and I just refuse to let us have to take that shot if I have evidence to the contrary. I just want people to understand that’s a damaging thing to do to a city and to a police department. It’s my responsibility to ensure the record gets set straight.”

He added, “There are real victims of crimes of that nature, hate crimes, and I just hope people don’t treat them with skepticism.”

 

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