Smollett declines to speak at sentencing in staged attack
CHICAGO • Jussie Smollett declined to make a statement Thursday during his sentencing hearing for lying to police in a staged hate crime, saying he agreed with his attorney’s advice to remain quiet.
Smollett’s decision came after special prosecutor Dan Webb asked Cook County Judge James Linn to include “an appropriate amount of prison time” when sentencing the actor for his conviction. Webb said he would not ask for a specific amount of time, leaving that to Linn’s discretion.
He also asked that Smollett be ordered to pay $130,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago.
Smollett’s defense attorney Nenye Uche asked Linn to limit the sentence to community service.
He said Smollett “has lost nearly everything” in his career and finances and asked that Linn give him time to make restitution if that is part of the sentence.
Witnesses for both the state and Smollett testified at Smollett’s sentencing at the Cook County Courthouse. Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, who was called by the state, submitted a statement that was read aloud by Samuel Mendenhall, a member of the special prosecution team.
In the statement, Brown, who became superintendent in April 2020 and wasn’t with the city at the time of Smollett’s police report, said Smollett’s false report of a hate crime harmed “actual victims” of such crimes.
Brown asked that the city be compensated for its costs, saying the cost of investigating his claim could have been spent elsewhere in the city.
Jussie Smollett’s grandmother, testifying for the defense, asked Linn not to include prison time in his sentence for Smollett.
“I ask you, judge, not to send him to prison,” Molly Smollett, 92, told the court.
She later added, “If you do, send me along with him, OK?”
Actor Jussie Smollett appears with his attorneys at his sentencing hearing Thursday in Chicago.