Appeals court affirms conviction, sentence in Jussie Smollett case

CHICAGO — An Illinois appeals court on Friday ruled that the sentence and conviction against Jussie Smollett should stand, turning another page in the years-old, infamous case.

Smollett appeared in court in person in September as a panel of appellate judges fired questions at lawyers about about the 2019 hearing during which Cook County prosecutors dropped all charges against him, spurring at the time a firestorm of controversy as well as the eventual appointment of a special prosecutor.

The substance of that hearing, and whether it constituted an agreement with Smollett, was central to the actor’s appeal of his convictions and sentence for fabricating a hate crime in January 2019. The former “Empire” TV show actor reported to Chicago police officers that two men attacked him in the Loop in the early hours of Jan. 29, hitting him, yelling homophobic slurs and placing a noose around his neck.

But in a twist that drew frenzied international attention, prosecutors charged Smollett the following month with disorderly conduct for concocting the hoax with brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who testified that he paid them to perpetrate the attack.

In a 2-1 decision, the judges ruled that Cook County prosecutors, when they dropped the felony charges, did not agree to file no further charges.

“The record does not establish that Smollett entered into a nonprosecution agreement with the (Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office), in which the (office) agreed to forgo further prosecution of him in exchange for his performance of community service and the forfeiture of his bond,” the decision reads.

About a month after prosecutors charged Smollett, they dropped all counts against him noting that he forfeited his $10,000 bond and had done community service. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx previously handed the case to deputies, saying she had recused herself.

Former Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb as special prosecutor amid scrutiny around the decision. Webb refiled charges, and a jury convicted Smollett of five of six counts of disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and $130,160 in restitution.

Smollett’s attorneys had argued, among other issues, that the filing of new criminal charges against Smollett constituted double jeopardy. They contended that the dropped charges amounted to an agreement between prosecutors and the actor, and that double jeopardy had attached when Smollett forfeited the bail money.

Attorneys for the state, though, argued that prosecutors who drop charges are not precluded from refiling charges in the same case.