A Subway foot-long tripped up Jussie Smollet in the eyes of Chicago police responding to his report of a hate crime in 2019.
Jussie Smollet, 39, who identifies as a Black, gay man, claimed he was attacked in downtown Chicago in January 2019 by people who yelled racist, anti-gay slurs while placing a noose around his neck.
Former Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson gave his take about the verdict on the NewsNation show “Morning in America.”
Johnson said he was initially concerned after viewing a video of him in his apartment with the noose around his neck because he felt a Black person in America would have immediately removed the noose. The former police superintendent said he was further bothered by the way Smollett was so nonchalant. It gave him pause for concern, he said, adding he didn’t change the actor’s status to the offender until the evidence against him became overwhelming.
Johnson recounted how Smollett went to a Subway sandwich shop at around two in the morning on one of the winter’s coldest days to get a sandwich. “OK, that’s fine,” Johnson said. “He comes back, gets attacked in a hate crime — supposed hate crime — and during all this scuffle, they poured bleach on him and all of this.”
“When he got up and went into his apartment building, he still had this Subway sandwich,” Johnson continued. “Well, that doesn’t happen. When people get attacked like that, whatever belongings they have out there, they usually leave it until the police can go back with them because they’re afraid.”
“This guy had the sandwich in his hand and never been touched,” Johnson said.
A jury of six men and six women deliberated for more than nine hours before they convicted the Empire actor on five felony counts of disorderly conduct, for each charge of lying to police in the days after the alleged attack. Jurors acquitted Smollet on a sixth count of lying to a detective in the weeks after the alleged attack.
Conviction on a disorderly conduct charge for a false crime report is punishable by a maximum of three years in prison, and a $25,000 fine. Cook County Judge James Linn will have discretion in imposing a concurrent or consecutive sentence for each count when he sentences the former actor. If Judge Linn imposes consecutive sentences, the Empire actor would be incarcerated for up to 15 years.
The lack of believability described by the former superintendent almost immediately spawned satirical memes, such as “Jussie’s hate crime was more fake than Subway’s tuna.”
Another displayed a man behind bars with the caption saying he wanted to be Jussie’s girl, a play on the title of Rick Springfield’s song “Jessie’s Girl”.
