Empire star Jussie Smollett to be indicted; police seek actor’s surrender
Today, the Chicago Police Department announced via a spokesman on Twitter that they have indicted Smollett with filing a false police report. Felony criminal charges have been approved and with that in mind, they are now seeking his surrender. Take a look below:
Case Update: Jussie Smollett is now officially classified as a suspect in a criminal investigation by #ChicagoPolice for filing a false police report (Class 4 felony). Detectives are currently presenting evidence before a Cook County Grand Jury … Felony criminal charges have been approved by @CookCountySAO against Jussie Smollett for Disorderly Conduct / Filing a False Police Report. Detectives will make contact with his legal team to negotiate a reasonable surrender for his arrest.
Odds are, Smollett is going to surrender at some point over the coming days, and this case will probably have a number of other developments over the days ahead. It all began just weeks ago when the actor was supposedly attacked in the early morning outside his Chicago hotel. At the time, it appeared as though he was a victim of a hate crime, but some evidence has come out to the contrary.
As for what Fox chooses to do about this case and Smollett’s potential surrender, they previously vocalized this morning that they were standing by the actor. Whether or not that changes now remains to be seen. Smollett has, through an attorney, previously denied claims that his assault was fabricated. This may be a situation that Fox decides to let play out through the legal system, but it is certainly not one that is going to go away in the near future. With Empire returning to the air next month, it may be the main subject of conversation leading up to it. This is fairly uncharted waters for something like this to happen with a series regular on a primetime scripted show, at least in the modern era. It may prove difficult for the network and the studio to figure out how to handle it.
Related News – Be sure to get some more news on Empire and the case
Once there is more situation to report on, we will have it for you here. We are a television news site, so much of our coverage will probably be viewed through that particular lens. (Photo: Fox.)