CHICAGO (CelebrityAccess) — Former ‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett has been found guilty of filing a false police report that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic assault in 2019.
After deliberating for nine hours, the jury convicted Smollett on five of six counts of disorderly conduct related to the filing of a police report.
The next hearing in the case is set for Thursday, Jan. 27. and Smollett faces up to three years in prison in connection to the charges.
Smollett filed the police report about the attack on January 29th, 2019, telling police that he was attacked by two white men wearing ski masks outside of his building.
According to Smollett, the alleged attackers used racist and homophobic slurs during the purported assault, telling him the area was “MAGA Country” a reference to the then President Trump’s campaign slogan ‘Make America Great Again’.
A month later, Smollett was indicted by a grand jury for filing a false police report, but the prosecutor initially decided to drop the charges after Smollett performed 16 hours of community service and forfeited his $10,000 bond.
However, following public outcry, Smollett was charged again by a Cook County grand jury on six counts pertaining to making four false police reports.
