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by Mugo Odigwe and Charlie De Mar
CHICAGO (CBS) — Testimony resumed on Wednesday, at day 3 of the Jussie Smollett Trial, as a Chicago Police detective recalled questioning Smollett at the hospital after the attack police and prosecutors have called a hoax.
Smollett faces six counts of disorderly conduct, accused of lying to Chicago police when he claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in January 2019.
Smollett, who is Black and openly gay, had told police he was attacked as he was walking home around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2019. He claimed two masked men – one of them also wearing a red hat – shouted racist and homophobic slurs as they beat him, put a noose around his neck, and poured a chemical on him. Police and prosecutors have said Smollett orchestrated it himself, paying two brothers $3,500 to help stage the attack.
The first person on the stand on the stand on Wednesday was Chicago Police Detective Kimberly Murray. Smollett is accused of lying to her when she took a report of his is attack.
Murray described Smollett’s injuries as minor, adding that he refused to turn over cell phone records after reporting he’d received a threatening phone call before the attack, in which the caller said, “Hey you little f*****t,” even though police said his phone records would be helpful in figuring out who made the call, and establish a timeline of events.
She also said Smollett declined to turn over medical records she wanted to document the injuries he suffered. She also asked Smollett for a cheek swab to try and pick up any DNA on the rope that was tied around his neck during the attack, but he declined that as well.
We’re still waiting to hear the testimony from the Osundairo brothers, the two people police say Smollett paid to carry out the attack.
As he entered the courthouse on Wednesday, Abel Osundairo said he is ready to tell the truth when he eventually takes the stand.
“I’m ready to do what I gotta do. Tell the truth, not my truth,” he said.
During opening statements on Monday, Smollett’s defense attorney insisted he really was the victim of an attack perpetrated by brothers Ola and Abel Osundairo, and claimed police made a “rush to judgment” in accusing Smollett of orchestrating a hoax.
But Chicago Police Detective Michael Theis, a lead investigator in the case who was the first person called to the witness stand in Smollett’s trial on Tuesday, disputed there was any rush to judgment in the case.
Theis walked the jury through exactly how Smollett went from victim to suspect. He said 24 to 26 officers were dedicated to solving the crime Smollett reported, working at it for more than 3,000 hours combined, and reviewing at least 1,500 hours of surveillance video.
“This was horrible. The crime was a hate crime. There was a noose. There was bleach,” Detective Theis testified. “The mayor on down – everybody wanted answers. They wanted to know what happened.”
Police were looking for two men seen in a grainy video as the possible suspects, but detectives did not know who those men were. Then came a major break in the case. Brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo were identified from a rideshare video they took the night of the attack.
Smollett went on national TV and said he was positive the men in the surveillance video were his attackers. Detectives thought they had solved the case.
Once in custody, the brothers told investigators it was all a hoax. Police then spent days trying to determine if the brothers’ story added up.
“At the end of the investigation, we determined the alleged hate crime was actually a staged event – and the hate crime did not occur,” Theis said.
Source: ChicagoCBS
