CHICAGO — Thursday evening, his right fist raised in defiance, Jussie Smollett walked out of Judge James Linn’s courtroom and into a monthslong stretch of Cook County custody.
While Linn sentenced the former “Empire” actor to 150 days in jail, it seems likely he will be eligible for good-behavior credit, which would cut his custody sentence in half. Still, his attorneys expressed shock that he was given jail time at all.
“Anyone who is a lover of justice and fairness should be appalled by this,” his attorney Nenye Uche told reporters, saying that as a Black man he was “personally offended” by the sentence. “How much? Soon they will be asking for the guillotine.”
Smollett’s attorneys requested that he be put in protective custody, records show, and Judge James Linn signed an order recommending that placement.
Smollett is being housed in his own cell, which is monitored by security cameras and an officer with a body-worn camera who is stationed at the entrance of the cell, according to a statement Friday from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. He is entitled “substantial time” out of his cell to use the phone, interact with staff and watch TV; during that time, other detainees will not be present with him in the common areas.
“These protocols are routinely used for individuals ordered into protective custody who may potentially be at risk of harm due to the nature of their charges, their profession, or their noteworthy status,” the statement read.
Smollett was convicted of low-level felonies in December when a jury found that he had lied to police about being the victim of a hate crime attack. Prosecutors argued at sentencing that he denigrated real victims of hate crimes when he staged a phony assault on himself involving racial slurs, homophobic epithets and a noose.
Smollett was sentenced to 30 months of probation, with the first 150 days to be served in Cook County Jail. In addition, he must pay a $25,000 fine as well as $120,106 in restitution — the amount of restitution the city sought to pay for its overtime costs investigating the case, minus the $10,000 Smollett forfeited to the city when his first case was dropped.
Smollett declined to speak before sentencing, but after Linn handed down his decision, Smollett surprised the whole courtroom by standing up to proclaim his innocence.
“If I did this, then it means I stuck my fist in the fears of Black Americans in this country for over 400 years, and the fears of the LGBT community,” he said. “Your honor, I respect you, and I respect the jury, but I did not do this. And I am not suicidal, and if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself.”
In response to Smollett’s comments and his attorney’s prior remarks about COVID-19 at the jail, a sheriff’s office statement Thursday evening noted that “like all individuals ordered into custody at the Jail, Mr. Smollett will be given a comprehensive medical, mental health, and security assessment and will be placed in appropriate housing.”
Smollett will be tested for COVID-19 upon intake, which is the jail’s protocol, the statement noted. As of Thursday there were 12 jail detainees who were positive for COVID at the jail, all of whom were identified during the intake process
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department said Friday the office would “reconsider its options” regarding the civil suit they filed against Smollett seeking to recoup the overtime costs the city paid to police.
In a letter filed with the court, a Law Department attorney along with Chicago police Superintendent David Brown strongly hinted that the suit would be dropped if Smollett were sentenced to pay the $130,106 in restitution.
Even before Smollett’s adamant remarks, his hourslong sentencing hearing was bombastic even by Cook County’s blustery standards.
Linn called the actor a “charlatan,” claiming he wanted to throw himself a “pity party” and grab attention by staging the fake hate crime.
The fact that Smollett and his family have been deeply committed to social-justice issues made it all the more shocking that Smollett tried to exploit those sentiments, Linn said.
“You were so invested in issues of social justice and you knew this was a sore spot for everybody in this country, you know this was a country slowly trying to heal,” he said. “You took some scabs off some healing wounds and you ripped them apart for one reason: you wanted to make yourself more famous.”
Uche told reporters after court that Linn himself has given more lenient sentences to other defendants with Class 4 felonies. And besides, he said, Thursday’s sentencing was “round two” of punishment. Smollett had already forfeited his $10,000 bond as part of an agreement that Cook County prosecutors would drop his initial charges.
“So regardless of where anyone stands, in where they feel or how they feel about Jussie, the question is, isn’t that beating a dead horse? Isn’t that going too far?” Uche said.
One of Smollett’s attorneys, Shay Allen, told reporters that Smollett’s sentence was a “travesty.”
“For Judge Linn to chastise Jussie that way, and speak about the Black community and speak about the LGBTQ-plus community in a way that was so demeaning, and then give him a jail sentence on a Class 4 felony .... I’ve never, never ever seen such a harsh sentence on a Class 4 felony.”
Dan Webb, the prosecutor appointed to investigate the Smollett matter after Judge Michael Toomin ruled Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s recusal was improper and the initial case was all void, said they were “extraordinarily pleased” with the sentence. Webb also pushed back on Foxx’s characterization in a Sun-Times op-ed that Smollett’s second case was a “kangaroo prosecution.”
“The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office dismissed the entire indictment with no punishment whatsoever, no jail time, no restitution, no criminal fine, no probation, no deferred prosecution,” Webb said. “Smollett was allowed to go free and basically give the finger to the city of Chicago, and Judge Toomin decided that the handling of that case was so inappropriate that a special prosecutor needed to be appointed.”
Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez represented the two star witnesses against Smollett, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundario. Much was made at trial of Olabinjo’s felony conviction, but he tried to better himself afterward, she noted, and urged Smollett to do the same.
“We can only hope to convey that message to Mr. Smollett. Don’t let this mistake define you. It doesn’t have to. Make something good from this.”
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