Chicago .- The actor Jussie Smollett, from the television series “Empire”, went from prosecutor to investigated in the case of an alleged homophobic assault against him, after this Wednesday he was charged with disorderly conduct.
According to the spokesman of the Chicago Police (Illinois), Anthony Guglielmi, the Prosecutor’s Office filed charges formally and the authorities are now “negotiating” with the plaintiff’s attorneys a “reasonable surrender”, which could lead to the interpreter deliver by your own means.
The spokesman had previously disclosed that Smollett is “suspected of a criminal investigation”.
The actor had reported that he was the object of an alleged homophobic and racist aggression that took place in late January in which two African brothers were arrested as possible suspects, although they were later released.
“Jussie Smollett is now officially classified as a suspect in a criminal investigation by the Chicago Police for filing a false police report,” a felony, Guglielmi said late, after detectives presented evidence to a county grand jury of Cook.
Some local media reported that the actor had possibly orchestrated the attack, as was evident from the testimony given by the detained brothers.
Smollett denounced that on January 29, two masked men shouted racist and homophobic insults, beat him and put a rope around his neck while walking alone on the street at 2 o’clock in the morning.
The actor, who was hospitalized, said the attackers shouted “this is a MAGA zone,” in reference to the campaign slogan of US President Donald Trump, “Make America Great Again (MAGA).”
However, last weekend, Guglielmi issued a statement in which he said that the testimony of brothers Ola and Abel Osundairo “has in fact changed the trajectory of the investigation.”
Newspapers such as the Chicago Sun Times reported that the police were investigating whether the actor actually paid the brothers a sum of money ($ 3,500) to mount the attack in the neighborhood of Streeterville, as the detainees had told the agents.
Behind it, says the media, was the decision of the producers of Fox Television to remove from the series the actor, who has declared himself gay, although the network has denied such a possibility.
The local newscast of the CBS network reported today that it obtained a recording of video surveillance cameras of a store that shows when the brothers buy, one day before the attack, red caps and ski masks.
Through his lawyers, Smollett declared that he felt “victimized” by the suspicion that he had orchestrated the alleged homophobic and racist attack that he denounced to the Chicago Police, with which he declared himself willing to speak as long as it was not to respond versions or rumors of “unidentified sources”.
Fox Television, meanwhile, today issued a statement in which he stressed that “Jussie Smollett is still an accomplished professional on the set.”
“As we have said before, you are not being excluded from the program,” he added. (IL), (EFEUSA) .-
