Empire actor Jussie Smollett is now considered a suspect by the Chicago Police Department.
Their Chief Communications Officer, Anthony Guglielmi, tweeted about it on Wednesday, February 20.
“Case Update: Jussie Smollett is now officially classified as a suspect in a criminal investigation by #ChicagoPolice for filing a false police report (Class 4 felony). Detectives are currently presenting evidence before a Cook County Grand Jury.”
If he is convicted of the crime, he could face up to 3 years in prison.
Gugilelmi confirmed earlier that prosecutors are speaking with Smollett’s attorneys as part of their investigation into an alleged attack on him.
"We are hopeful that we'll have a chance to ask the questions that we have," Guglielmi said. "It doesn't matter what the investigation shows; if you have information that's helpful to law enforcement, it behooves you to contact authorities and share that information. We have been very diplomatic and have been working with him and his attorneys. We got information, and that what we want [sic] to run by him. If the opportunity is not taken [to come in], we're going to go with other methods to create a culture of accountability."
This all stemmed from an alleged attack on Smollett in the early morning hours of January 29 that has consistently brought new developments in the days since.
Initially, it was reported that Smollett was attacked outside a Subway in Chicago by two white men wearing ski masks. The attack was seen as racist and homophobic, as the men reportedly called him a “f***ot” and “n****r” while allegedly dousing him with bleach and wrapping a noose around his neck. Smollett then transported himself to Northwestern Hospital.
There have been several stories since then about the alleged incident that have included the entire thing being staged to Smollett allegedly doing this to prevent his character from being written off Empire.
Story developing…
Talk about a waste of time
Talk about a waste of time and energy…
I’m very disappointed in
I'm very disappointed in Robin Roberts for being a part of his charade. She's supposed to be a credible journalist not a pyschatrist. She just moleycoddeled this pretingious dick.