CHICAGO — Former Empire actor Jussie Smollett has been found guilty of five of six counts of felony disorderly conduct in Chicago, according to USA Today, with the case against him being that he hired two brothers, Abimbola ‘Abel’ Osundairo and Olabinjo ‘Ola’ Osundairo, to stage a racist, anti-gay attack on him on January 29, 2019, and then lied about it to police.
The Chicago Tribune’s timeline says Smollett left his apartment building at 1:45 a.m. that night to walk to a nearby Subway restaurant, around the same time the brothers were seen in CCTV footage on the streets around his apartment building.
At 2:04 a.m., Smollett arrived back at the intersection of North New and East North Water streets near his apartment building, where he later claimed the two men approached him, shouted racist and homophobic slurs at him, struck him in the face and poured an ‘unknown substance’ on him, before wrapping a rope around his neck.
In the aftermath of the incident, several key factors were used to challenge Smollet’s account, including the fact that the day after the alleged attack,
Smollett briefly called Abel Osundairo, and minutes later Abel Osundairo returned the call, before he and his brother boarded a flight to Nigeria.
From here, police began to form a very different version of events.
Court documents indicate that on January 22, 2019, Jussie Smollett received a threatening letter at the studio where the show ‘Empire’ is filmed.
It came with a white powdery substance that was later determined to be ibuprofen.
Disappointed by the studio’s handling of the letter, the actor met with friend Abel Osundairo and Abel’s brother Ola three days later, and asked them to stage an attack on him.
According to prosecutors, Smollett planned for the assault to happen the night of January 28 near his Streeterville apartment. He told Abel to hurt him, but not too badly, and Ola to put a rope around his neck, pour gasoline on him, and yell, “This is MAGA country!”
He then gave the brothers $100 to buy rope, gasoline, ski masks, gloves and red MAGA baseball caps needed for the attack.
On January 27, Smollett drove the brothers to the scene where he wanted the assault to take place, pointing out a surveillance camera that would capture the incident.
He instructed them to pour bleach instead of gasoline, and not to bring their cellphones, then gave a $3,500 personal check payable to Abel.
A flight delay on Smollett’s part pushed the plan back to 2 a.m. on the 29th.
The actor called Abel at 12:49 a.m. once his plane landed. Minutes later, the brothers hailed an Uber, switching to a cab midway that took them three blocks from the scene.
The attack took place at 2:04 a.m. as instructed, though out of view of the camera. The brothers fled the scene afterward, taking a taxi home.
This version of events saw the actor indicted in March of 2019 for 16 counts of felony disorderly conduct, but charges were initially all dropped just weeks later, with prosecutors said Smollett had forfeited his $10,000 bail and done community service.
