CHICAGO (AP) — Actor Jussie Smollett is set to return to court on Thursday, where she will learn whether a judge will order her closure for her sentence for lying to police about a racist and homophobic assault she herself committed. orchestrated or permitted them. be free
Smollett, who is expected to continue to deny his role in the January 2019 staged attack, faces up to three years in prison for each of five felony counts of disorderly conduct - a charge of lying to police - of which he was convicted. He was acquitted on the sixth count.
But because Smollett does not have an extensive criminal history and the sentence is for a low-level nonviolent crime, experts do not expect that he will be sent to prison. The actor could be ordered to serve up to one year in county jail or, if Cook County Judge James Lynn so chooses, he could be placed on probation and ordered to perform some form of community service. .
The sheer size and scope of the police investigation was a major part of the trial and is significant in the pending $130,000 lawsuit the city filed against Smollett to recover the cost of police overtime, so the judge may also order the actor to pay heavily. could. Fines and recovery.
Smollett's lead attorney has said he will ask the judge to dismiss the charges before sentencing. But judges rarely make such proposals. That means it could be the final chapter in a criminal case, subject to appeal, that made international headlines when Smollett, who is black and gay, told police that two men wearing ski masks beat him, and that But gave racial and homophobic abuses. On a dark Chicago street and ran.
In December, Smollett was convicted in a trial that included the testimony of two brothers, who told jurors that Smollett paid him to execute the attack, gave him money for a ski mask and rope, made him pull the rope. instructed to make a noose. Prosecutors said they told him to shout racist and homophobic slurs, and to shout that Smollett was in "MAGA country," a reference to the campaign slogan of Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
Smollett, who had known the men from their work on the television show "Empire", which was filmed in Chicago, testified that he did not recognize them and did not know that the men were attacking him.
During the hearing, prosecutors and Smollett's attorneys will have a chance to present witnesses and allow Smollett to make a statement. He could repeat some of the things he told jurors during the trial about how he was only the victim of a violent crime.
Smollett could also tell the judge as he told jurors about his extensive history of volunteering and donating to charitable causes. And he could say that the fact that the case ruined his career is punishment enough for him to escape custody.
Unlike the trial, Lynn has agreed to let photographers and a television camera inside the courtroom for the hearing - meaning the public will get to see and hear Smollett speak in court for the first time.