Jussie Smollett was officially charged with felony disorderly conduct after allegedly filing a false police report, and fans are in shock at the news.
The Empire actor has been caught in the middle of controversy after developments in the investigation led Chicago police to suspect he had been involved in staging the brutal attack he went through a few weeks ago.
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As previously reported, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office filed the charges after Ola and Abel Osundairo testified in front of a gran jury for 2.5 hours, a few days after reports surfaced that the brothers had been allegedly hired by the actor to stage an attack on himself and pass it off as a hate crime.
Fans of the Fox series and Smollett, who have been following the investigation and the actor’s content denial of his involvement in the controversy, took to Twitter to lash out at the actor for presumably lying to police.
Jussie Smollett has just been indictedfor a felony … filing a false police report, and the stakes are 3 years in prison. A Cook County Grand Jury handed down the indictment late Wednesday, after grand jurors heard testimonies and evaluated evidence.
— mistracy39 (@mistracy39) February 21, 2019
“You should be ashamed of yourself. Using race/sex identity as a means to gaining starpower. Real ppl [with] real issues got real stories to tell! Not an activist but a detractavist!” one fan wrote on social media.
“Jussie Smollett has just been indicted for a felony … filing a false police report, and the stakes are 3 years in prison,” another user said, reiterating reports.
“Jussie must despise white people to an atomic level to orchestrate this to make them all look bad,” a third Twitter user commented.
The news of the charges came shortly after police declared Smollett an official suspect in the incident and is only the latest twist in the case of Smollett supposed “hate crime.
The actor first told police he was attacked by two masked men and beaten in early February. However, when police arrested two persons of interest in the case, the Osundairo brothers offered new evidence that turned the spotlight back on Smollett.
One of the brothers previously worked on the set of Empire as an extra, and the interviews with them first led police to suspect Smollett had planned the “attack.” Security footage also seemed to show the actor in the elevator of his apartment building before the incident, and police believe he paid the brothers $3,5000 for the staged attack.
@JussieSmollett you should be ashamed of yourself 😡 you lost a fan!
— Yaritza Laporte (@archangelphoto7) February 21, 2019
“In a matter of weeks #JussieSmollett set the Gay and Black community back into the Stone Age. Why?!” one fan wondered.
“It’s a damn shame how this Jussie Smollett situation is unfolding,” another user reflected.
