AS the star of hit drama Empire, Jussie Smollett was at the height of his fame in 2019 and was becoming a household name across the globe.
But the actor’s world came crashing down after he claimed he had been the victim of a hate crime , attacked by two white men in the street who punched and kicked him, using racial and homophobic slurs before tying a noose around his neck.
The horrifying ‘attack’ sent shockwaves around the world, coming at a time of racially-charged tensions and claims of police corruption in Chicago, where Smollett alleged the incident took place, and other cities across America.
Messages of support for the actor, now 43, flooded in from celebrities and even President Donald Trump , with cops put under huge pressure to solve the case.
Josie Duffy Rice, a criminal justice journalist, says: “You don’t put a noose around anybody’s neck for any other reason than they are black. Lynching is coming back, right? That was the undertone. It felt like a threat against anybody black.”
Melissa Staples, former chief of detectives at Chicago Police, adds: “That is something I have never come across in an investigation in 30 years. I thought it was very disturbing, I thought it was repulsive.”
But police soon established an astonishing twist in the tale, suspecting that the attack had not happened at all and was in fact a hoax staged by Smollett himself and two friends .
Now a new Netflix documentary breaks down how the scandal was exposed by a breadcrumb trail of clues including a sandwich bag, while those involved in the case – including Smollett, who astonishingly maintains his innocence – put forward their sides of the story.
Smollett – who played pop star Jamal Lyon in Fox drama Empire – says: “Those moments changed the trajectory of my entire life.
“My story has never changed. My story has remained intact.
“Trust me there have been people who have come to me and said ‘just say that you did it’.
“But why would I say that I did something if I didn’t do it?”
Hoax unravels
Smollett had gone out in freezing temperatures in the middle of the night to get some food when he claimed he was attacked on Chicago’s East Lower North Water Street on January 29, 2019.
He returned to his apartment with the noose still around his neck and his friend called the police to report the hate crime.
But alarm bells soon started to ring for the detectives in charge of the case.
Eddie Johnson, former superintendent of Chicago Police, says: “To think that I had two white guys attack a black man in this city was disgusting to me. But some things kind of struck me as a little odd.
“We were going through the polar vortex at the time and I was thinking to myself, ‘Who is out in the street with it being cold as s**t out there?’
“We had video of Jussie Smollett when he came back into his building after the crime had occurred so that’s when we saw the Subway sandwich bag in his hand, that was in pristine condition.
“And I’m like wait a minute, most victims of an assault like that, they are trying to get the heck out of dodge, because let’s face it who says that these guys that assaulted him won’t come back?
“The last thing you are worried about is grabbing a sandwich bag, so that was a little odd to me.
I believe he wanted to be the poster boy of activism for black people, for gay people or for marginalised people
Bola
“Then there was the initial video of him in his apartment with the noose. He says to the officers, ‘Yeah this is the noose that they used, I just want you all to see it’, then he calmly takes it from around his neck and then rolls it up like it’s a prop.
“Now my family is from the Deep South in Alabama so I saw some things growing up. I don’t know of many black people, if there was a noose around their neck, they are not going to leave it on there. They are going to treat it with disdain and disgust.
That was a little cause for concern. Then we asked Jussie for his phone. He doesn’t want to give it to us so of course that raised a lot of suspicion on our part.”
Suspects puzzle
Cops reviewed hours and hours of CCTV footage and found no evidence of an assault.
Taxi records from the night of the attack identified two main suspects who were dropped off near the scene of the alleged crime – but puzzlingly, they were two black men, Ola and Bola Osundairo.
And far from being total strangers to Jussie Smollett , they had both worked as extras on the Empire series – and one was his personal trainer.
Then detectives discovered that the night after the incident the Osundairo brothers had flown to Nigeria .
On their return cops were waiting to arrest them on the runway.
Police showed Smollett the men’s pictures and he said it was impossible that they were his attackers.
He says: “I was friends with one brother, he was also working as my trainer. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever that I could think that they would do it.”
But Jussie later gave a TV interview about his attack and identified two men pictured on CCTV as his attackers – unaware that police had IDed them as the Osundairo brothers.
And when the pair’s lawyer Gloria Rodriguez showed them the footage, they were furious and agreed to talk to the police.
The brothers claimed that Jussie had received a threatening letter in the post a week before the attack, but he said the Empire film studio weren’t taking it seriously.
So he asked Bola – who he had become friends with – to beat him up.
Bola says: “I believe he wanted to be the poster boy of activism for black people, for gay people or for marginalised people.”
Ola adds: “I thought it was crazy but at the same time it was Hollywood . So I don’t know, I’m a baby in it. This is what they do, this is how it goes.”
Steroid cash claim
Smollett paid the brothers $3,500 by cheque and they went ahead with the plan.
Eddie Johnson says: “Now the brothers had given us enough evidence to prove that he was not telling the truth. I was like we’ve got this dude now.”
But Jussie had gone AWOL.
Tina Glandian, attorney at Geragos and Geragos, a firm that has represented infamous stars such as Andrew Tate and Chris Brown , was drafted in by Jussie Smollett’s employers at Fox.
Police alleged that Smollett had sent himself the threatening letter, and then when that didn’t get enough attention from Fox, he set up the staged attack in a bid to get a salary increase.
And that is when the public turned on him.
Smollett says: “Eddie Johnson said things that are factually untrue. That I lied because I was dissatisfied with my pay on Empire.
“Let me just break that down. My relationship with Fox was very good. I was making great money as an actor, and I was also now making great money as a director.”
Smollett claims that he had paid Bola the $3,500 not to stage an attack, but to buy him an illegal herbal steroid from Nigeria to help him lose belly fat.
Dropped from show
Jussie Smollett was charged with filing a false police report and was written out of Empire.
But after a meeting between his lawyers and the prosecutors, a deal was reached and the charges were dropped.
Smollett says: “My lawyer then comes to me, she says they are offering that if you forfeit your bond for $10,000 and we can show them that you are a good citizen, they will drop this and they will let this go.
“If this continues, this will go on for at least two years, your career will stall and people will forget about you. And it was because of that that I made the decision and said we will do it.
“I can’t say I was happy when the charges were dropped because I feel like the charges should never have been brought to begin with.”
Meanwhile, the cops who had investigated the case were furious and a special prosecutor was brought in to look at it again.
I thought it was crazy but at the same time it was Hollywood. So I don’t know, I’m a baby in it.
Ola
Smollett was once again charged and faced trial. His lawyers claimed to have found two witnesses from the night of the attack – one a hotel security guard who had seen a white man in a balaclava running past, and one of Jussie’s neighbours who saw a man with a piece of white rope hanging out of his jacket outside their apartment building.
Despite this new evidence, he was found guilty and sentenced to 150 days in jail, although he served only six days behind bars after he launched an appeal.
Jussie Smollett still maintains his innocence, with the Netflix documentary hearing claims he believes back up his version of events.
A documentary maker and freelance journalist investigating the case claim CCTV they have seen of the suspects from the night of the alleged attack clearly shows that they were two white men, though this is disputed by others who appear in the film.
In November last year, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned Smollett’s conviction, saying the prosecutors could not go after him again after the original deal they made with him.
The Truth About Jussie Smollett? Is on Netflix from August 22.
