'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett goes from victim to accused liar
CHICAGO - In little more than three weeks, "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett went from a sympathetic victim of a racist, anti-gay attack to an accused liar whose allegedly staged assault further roiled divisions across the country.
Smollett, 36, was charged Wednesday evening with disorderly conduct, a felony, for allegedly filing a false police report about an attack he said occurred as he walked to his apartment building in the Streeterville neighborhood last month. If convicted, he faces anywhere from probation to three years in jail.
"Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence," Smollett's attorneys Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson said in a statement. "Particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been
