Justin M. Howard | August 13, 2020
Tying all the police notes and interviews together, it’s evident that false claims were made to the police, but by whom? The Jussie Smollett investigation discovery, the hoax and how it happened. Could Smollett actually be innocent of staging a hate crime?
How the Jussie Smollett Investigation Began
On Jan 29, 2019, TMZ broke the story that Jussie Smollett was attacked in a possible hate crime. While walking from a Subway in Chicago, two men reportedly yelled racial and homophobic slurs at the Empire actor after he exited the restaurant. They punched him, poured bleach on him and one of the suspects also put a rope around his neck. Instantly after the story broke many took to social media and rumors started that Smollett was lying about the attack.
The police notes state that Smollett was only able to describe one attacker, only seeing “pale skin around the eyes” through a ski mask. Skepticism grew as false media reports spread of both attackers being white men wearing MAGA hats.
When police discovered that Nigerian brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo were the ones behind the attack this fueled the hoax allegations more. As detectives informed Smollett of his attackers identity he struggled with the idea that the brothers were behind it. He had recently hired the brothers for exercise training and nutrition.
“It can’t be them they are black as sin. We don’t have any issues. They are straight so we don’t have any problems with women or men. They did not owe me any money, I don’t owe them any money we have a good relationship.” stated Smollett in police notes.
Jussie Smollett Investigation Discovery – continued
Off the Record, The Osundairo Brothers
Ola and Abel Osundairo also maintained they weren’t homophobic. However, past tweets and two witnesses who interacted with them on the set of Empire tell a different story. Ticarus Bunch, who played a prison guard on the show, recalled the incident.
“We were talking about friends and it was like, ‘could you have a homosexual friend even though you were heterosexual, And he was just like ‘hell naw,’ he not gonna be friends with no fa**ot. And it jarred everybody like whoa, like that’s very, very, very offensive. It was obvious that this guy just, he’s very homophobic. He just do not like gays.”
The brothers were confrontational with another extra on the set because of his sexuality. Lawrence Johnson Jr recounted: “There was an openly gay guy named Alex. Didn’t try to hide it. Really flamboyant. These guys didn’t like it. They started picking with him. Moving his bag back and forth that he had on set with him.”
Once in the 47th hour of police custody, the brothers claimed that they were paid by Smollett to stage an attack. Their alibi was believable to many, including the police. However, this alibi was already available for the Osundairo brothers due to hoax rumors spread on social media. Discovery shows that one of the brothers googled ‘Jussie Smollett’ over 50 times after the alleged attack.
Jussie Smollett Investigation Discovery – continued
Jussie Smollett Defense Team Discovery
Tina Glandian, Smollett’s attorney had this to say about the Osundairo brothers on the Today Show:
“Their story says that he (Jussie Smollett) allegedly planned the attack for 2 a.m. sharp, according to police they arrived at 1:22 a.m. and it’s freezing cold, if you look at the timing its a 15 minute car ride, why would you get there 40 minutes early if …
Guthrie: Some people are early birds.
Glandian: 40 minutes to wait in that cold weather, Jussie got so much grief that he went out for a sandwich in the cold but the brothers apparently waited in the cold for 40 minutes?
Guthrie: If they were going to attack him I guess they were looking for their opportunity.
Glandian: Right, it makes much more sense when you look at it through that lens, that they were trying to catch him as soon as he got home as opposed to this is a 2 a.m…. you get there 40 minutes early.”
After Glandians appearance on Mark Geragos podcast Reasonable Doubt, the Osundairo brothers sued Smollett’s lawyers for defamation. The suit claims Smollett staged the attack because he wanted to be respected as a black and gay actor and that Glandian publicly suggested Abel Osundario and Smollett engaged in a sexual relationship.
According to the lawsuit, Glandian’s suggestion that Abel Osundairo is gay “puts him and his family in Nigeria in danger, noting that homosexual activity is illegal in Nigeria and is punishable by up to 14 years in prison or death by stoning if the accused is married.” In the podcast where Glandian explains the inaccurate reports and mostly speculates on the motive for the attack, she doesn’t say that Osundairo and Smollett are involved but that the older brother may have suspected it because of Abel’s association with him.
Jussie Smollett Investigation Discovery – continued
Camera Footage and Witness Testimony
The camera footage shows around 02:04 a.m. “the victim (Smollett) crosses the street … just behind him another subject comes into view before the video cuts off due to insufficient motion. Less than a minute later the other views show two subjects running and startled a security guard holding a flashlight as they pass.”
The security guard, who was working at the Sheraton Hotel, across the street from Smollett’s residence, says he saw a male around 6 feet tall wearing a face mask. The guard “could only see the skin area around the eyes where the face mask had cutouts, when the guard put the flashlight on the individual he saw pale skin, and believed the male to be white in his 20’s. Immediately after, a second man ran past, stockier than the first. He observed a third male at the bottom of the staircase.” When police called the guard to complete a photo line-up to identify the suspects, like Smollett – he didn’t consider the Osundairos to be suspects.
Additional witnesses made other notable observations. A woman spotted a white man outside Smollett’s apartment building that winter morning before the attack. While walking her dogs she noticed a white male who she describes as “appearing to be waiting for something” and as the man turned away she could see what appeared to be a rope hanging out from underneath his jacket.
Another woman, who parked her car near the area of the attack, also noticed “two unidentified persons dressed in dark clothes” as she stopped her car to let a third person “with lighter clothes” cross the street, he waved, she noticed he had on wired earbuds. Police asked if she could identify the man that waved at her, and if it was Smollett. She couldn’t identify him, and added “that if she recognized Smollett she would’ve “certainly said something because she is a big fan of the TV show Empire.”
Jussie Smollett Investigation Discovery – continued
The Verdict on Discovery
The dominant argument in the press is that Smollett staged the attack, despite police releasing over 400 pages of evidence proving the opposite. He’s currently indicted on 6 counts of lying to CPD. Theories expressed by Superintendent Eddie Johnson to the media about Smollett’s motives for staging an attack have been disproved by the FBI and Empire executives.
According to Smollett’s defense, the brothers pretended to be persons other than themselves to attack him, and when caught they used the hoax story as an alibi to get away with a hate crime. Are they in fact the ones guilty of lying to police and responsible for another hoax, one that ruined an innocent man’s career and reputation?
If Smollett is a victim of a crime like he says, and the brothers have lied, initiating lawsuits by the city and mayor – why not pursue charges against them? Smollett’s attorney Patricia Holmes, who represented him on the 16 counts in 2019 answered this question on the WGCI radio show:
“He could ask the state to prosecute or to investigate but then who’s going to believe that since the police have embraced the brothers. So we’re in a situation where they (the police) have said what they think, what they believe, as if it’s the bottom line. That’s not fair to Jussie. He’s the victim and then all of sudden it’s flipped on its head and he has to prove the other way around. Again not fair, not just. We don’t want a system where anyone is treated like that”
Watch Patricia Holmes speak on law enforcement in the Smollett case here.