Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Star of hit series "Empire" Jussie Smollett JUST CHARGED WITH NEW FAKING FELONY HATE CRIME

Transcript

Star of hit series "Empire" Jussie Smollett JUST CHARGED WITH NEW FAKING FELONY HATE CRIME · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: It's like Christmas morning. I really just don't know where
0:09
Speaker 1: to start, so let me just dive in. So this guy,
0:14
Speaker 1: a star, a star on the hit series Empire, tells
0:20
Speaker 1: people he was the victim of a hate crime because
0:23
Speaker 1: he is black and gay, that these perpetrators were just
0:29
Speaker 1: waiting stalking him. They have been writing these letters. It
0:33
Speaker 1: looks just like out of murder, she wrote, or wait
0:39
Speaker 1: wait downgrade that to Nancy Drew, where you cut out
0:42
Speaker 1: the letters out of a magazine or something and then
0:45
Speaker 1: there's a little stick figure of someone being hung. Anyway,
0:50
Speaker 1: I kept wondering who was stalking him at subway sandwich
0:54
Speaker 1: at too am. Long story short, well, well, well, well,
1:01
Speaker 1: if Jesse Smillett has not been indicted after pointing the
1:06
Speaker 1: finger at everybody butt him in the last hours the
1:10
Speaker 1: Empire starred Jesse Smilett indicted by a special prosecutor in
1:13
Speaker 1: Chicago on six counts of lyne to cops. Let me
1:18
Speaker 1: tell you something. This is not just about a pr
1:22
Speaker 1: stunt to get attention to himself and get more money
1:24
Speaker 1: as contract. This is about using Lady Justice crime stories
1:37
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace Smilette, a gay cast member of the
1:43
Speaker 1: Fox hit show Empire told police two masked white men
1:48
Speaker 1: shouting racist epithets and gay slurs, beat him up, knocked
1:52
Speaker 1: him to the ground, and doused him with an unknown
1:55
Speaker 1: chemical after he left a subway restaurant around two am
1:59
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. He also said his attackers allegedly yelled Maga country,
2:04
Speaker 1: a reference to President Trump's campaign slogan when does ohatsukipo?
2:10
Speaker 1: Who got that popular vote? Flett is known for speaking
2:14
Speaker 1: out against racism and bigotry, like in this twenty seventeen
2:18
Speaker 1: music video. He is also a frequent critic of the president.
2:24
Speaker 1: The actor was the target of a threatening letter last week,
2:27
Speaker 1: which the FBI is now investigating. Chicago Mayor Ram Emmanuel.
2:32
Speaker 1: What was done here? Alleged done here? Is this police
2:36
Speaker 1: are working on. This has no place in the city
2:39
Speaker 1: of Chicago now. Police sources tell us that Smolette says
2:43
Speaker 1: he was on the phone with his manager during at
2:47
Speaker 1: least part of that altercation, but so far neither man
2:51
Speaker 1: has agreed to turn over his cell phone for examination. Wow,
2:56
Speaker 1: you know what. This is not just about a pr
3:00
Speaker 1: our stunt to get attention to himself and get more
3:02
Speaker 1: money as contract. This is about using Lady justice, using
3:08
Speaker 1: the police, using the system, working at like a dog,
3:13
Speaker 1: like a mule, spending millions of dollars literally trying to
3:19
Speaker 1: solve his high profile case, when the whole time he
3:23
Speaker 1: was lying, you were just hearing our friend at CBS
3:28
Speaker 1: News that was Dean Reynolds. I got an all star
3:31
Speaker 1: panel with me right now, Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina trial
3:36
Speaker 1: lawyer Bobby Chekom, a former special agent FBI, star of
3:40
Speaker 1: Facebook watch series Curse of Acacore Psychologists, joining me from Manhattan.
3:46
Speaker 1: Karen Stark at Karenstark dot Com. Karen Smith, renown forensics expert,
3:51
Speaker 1: lecturer University Florida, host of Shattered Souls podcast. But right
3:56
Speaker 1: now to our friend at the New York Post, right
3:59
Speaker 1: in the middle of it, Gabrielle van Rouge. Gabrielle, Welcome,
4:04
Speaker 1: What the hey? What the hey is right? This has
4:08
Speaker 1: been a non stop roller coaster for pretty much twelve
4:12
Speaker 1: months now, you know, and it all started with this
4:14
Speaker 1: bizarre hate attack. So in the cops get to his apartment,
4:19
Speaker 1: I believe the manager. I got into a fight with
4:21
Speaker 1: somebody on air about this, and it was this beautiful anchor,
4:25
Speaker 1: and I hated to be so mean to her. But
4:28
Speaker 1: she kept saying that he called nine one one, but
4:31
Speaker 1: didn't the manager called nine one one. Gabrielle, Yes, you
4:34
Speaker 1: are exactly right. I've listened to the nine one one call.
4:37
Speaker 1: It was not Jesse. In fact, Jesse did not supportedly
4:40
Speaker 1: did not want to call nine one one because he
4:42
Speaker 1: didn't want to make a big fuss about it. But
4:44
Speaker 1: his manager, seeing the noose around his neck and smelling
4:47
Speaker 1: the bleach on his clothes and seeing the scratches on
4:50
Speaker 1: his face, he was like, we have to call the cops.
4:52
Speaker 1: So the manager is the one who called the police.
4:54
Speaker 1: And in fact, on the nine one one call, you
4:56
Speaker 1: can hear him saying that the subject who is wait, wait, wait, Gabrielle,
5:02
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I hate crime. It sounds like he
5:06
Speaker 1: got pushed around inside a nail salon. Wait a minute.
5:09
Speaker 1: So he had something on his clothing, but it didn't
5:13
Speaker 1: get on his skin because I guess that would have hurt.
5:16
Speaker 1: Then he had a scratch, Then there was a noose
5:19
Speaker 1: around his neck. Where's the black eye, where's the beating?
5:22
Speaker 1: Where's the ligature mark around his neck? And what were
5:26
Speaker 1: these two? Just the subway vigilantes? What were they hanging
5:30
Speaker 1: around at two o'clock. It's Chicago. How cold is it
5:33
Speaker 1: is Chicago at two am? Even in the summertime, it's freezing, Gabrielle,
5:38
Speaker 1: My nephew is there in grad school studying something complicated
5:43
Speaker 1: business and math, and it's freezing. What is he doing
5:47
Speaker 1: going out at two am in the morning anyway for
5:50
Speaker 1: a subway? Doesn't he have anything in his fridge? That
5:52
Speaker 1: was my first thought. Go ahead, Gabrielle, No, you're totally fight.
5:55
Speaker 1: And not only was it cold that night, it was
5:57
Speaker 1: actually one of the coldest nights of the year in Chicago.
6:00
Speaker 1: It was down to like way in the negatives. People
6:03
Speaker 1: were freezing their food within minutes of bringing it outside.
6:07
Speaker 1: It's not just it really seemed very implausible from the beginning,
6:12
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what Jesse's neighbor thought about. You know,
6:15
Speaker 1: first of all, Chicago is one of the most liberal
6:17
Speaker 1: cities in the US, So for somebody in that part
6:21
Speaker 1: of Chicago, in downtown Chicago, the riskiest part to be
6:24
Speaker 1: out at that time in those temperatures, stalking him from
6:29
Speaker 1: a subway restaurant just really started to beg a lot
6:33
Speaker 1: of questions very early on at the get go, at
6:37
Speaker 1: the very beginning the story of being stalked at two
6:40
Speaker 1: am and the freezing sub zero cold outside the subway
6:45
Speaker 1: didn't make sense. And I'm so happy, Bobby Chico, because
6:49
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to say, well, well, well, and I've
6:53
Speaker 1: never ever in my life gotten to say it till
6:56
Speaker 1: right now. Okay, what is wrong with his story, Bobby Chicone. Well,
7:00
Speaker 1: the first thing is, you know, the very very first
7:03
Speaker 1: thing that came to the investigator's mind, I think is
7:05
Speaker 1: that in these hate crimes they're so emotionally traumatizing when
7:08
Speaker 1: they actually happened, that the person would not keep a
7:12
Speaker 1: noose around their neck. They would shed anything the minute
7:16
Speaker 1: they got free, the minute they had their own ability
7:19
Speaker 1: to do so, they would get they would rip off
7:21
Speaker 1: a noose or rip off any other restraining up. Okay, wait, wait, wait,
7:25
Speaker 1: Bobby Chacon, I want to back that up. Gabrielle van
7:28
Speaker 1: Rouge with me, New York Post writer. Gabrielle, you said,
7:32
Speaker 1: and as I recall, when the agent got there, this
7:36
Speaker 1: is so he didn't call nine one. He called his
7:38
Speaker 1: agent about a hate crime where nothing really happened to him.
7:42
Speaker 1: He said, he's got to scratch on his face. Gabrielle
7:46
Speaker 1: isn't Chacon correct? He still had the noose around his neck?
7:50
Speaker 1: What thirty forty minutes later, that'd be the first thing
7:53
Speaker 1: I do is get that off of my neck. You're
7:57
Speaker 1: exactly right, and that's exactly what happened. He walked into
8:00
Speaker 1: the apartment building still wearing the news. Their surveillance video
8:03
Speaker 1: that we've review that shows that, and when the police
8:06
Speaker 1: officers responded to his apartment. Their body camp footage shows
8:10
Speaker 1: Jesse inside of his apartment wearing the news about thirty
8:14
Speaker 1: forty minutes after this attack. Now and you know, shortly
8:17
Speaker 1: before the clips turned off, because the after to turn
8:20
Speaker 1: off the cameras. He claims that he wanted to keep
8:23
Speaker 1: the news on as to not disturb the evidence, which
8:28
Speaker 1: just again segs a lot of questions. Bobby Chikoon, former
8:33
Speaker 1: special agent FBI star Facebook watched series Curse of Acacor.
8:38
Speaker 1: You know, you and I've talked about a lot of
8:39
Speaker 1: serious crimes where you would, for instance, pull up the
8:43
Speaker 1: dismembered body of Alaska Barris to Samantha Konig out of
8:48
Speaker 1: icy water, piece by piece, and then you get something
8:52
Speaker 1: like this. You got somebody with a new still around
8:57
Speaker 1: their neck. The most vile. The most horrible thing for
9:02
Speaker 1: an African American is to see I've been told a
9:07
Speaker 1: noose like that, or an image of a burning cross,
9:12
Speaker 1: or someone dressed up like the KKKR, the devil. The
9:17
Speaker 1: devil just oozes out of all of that, all the hate.
9:21
Speaker 1: And he picked that one thing. And Bobby Checkon, don't
9:24
Speaker 1: you know when he went into that apartment, he turned
9:26
Speaker 1: right at the surveillance camera so they could so it
9:30
Speaker 1: could catch him with a noose around his neck. Yeah,
9:33
Speaker 1: when we we've had people that are victims that keep
9:36
Speaker 1: evidence of crime because they are that aware of it,
9:38
Speaker 1: but they normally keep it at a distance and other ways.
9:41
Speaker 1: I've walked into scenes where they go, it's right over there,
9:43
Speaker 1: it's there. They don't lose sight of it, but they
9:45
Speaker 1: certainly don't keep in contact with or keep it around
9:48
Speaker 1: their neck. Crime story, he's with Nancy Grace. He knew
10:03
Speaker 1: it was the brothers, didn't He did not The attackers
10:07
Speaker 1: were masked. He only saw one of them. One of
10:09
Speaker 1: them approached him from behind and he was wearing a mask,
10:13
Speaker 1: and so he did not identify them. He initially had
10:18
Speaker 1: a really hard time believing that they could be involved
10:20
Speaker 1: because he knew one of them, and we can only
10:23
Speaker 1: speculate estimiliations. You know, the police say they have phone
10:26
Speaker 1: records of him talking to the brothers an hour before
10:29
Speaker 1: the attack, absolutely hour after the attack, and while they're
10:32
Speaker 1: in Africa, not after, not an hour after the attack
10:35
Speaker 1: that they said. That's completely false. And not only that
10:38
Speaker 1: you were hearing our friends at Good Morning America. But
10:42
Speaker 1: take a listen to Charlie DeMar's CBS Chicago. Brothers Ola
10:46
Speaker 1: and abel osan Daro, captured on Street Orville surveillance cameras,
10:50
Speaker 1: told detectives their role in the reported January twenty ninth
10:54
Speaker 1: attack on actor Jesse Smillette, according to multiple sources. Those
10:59
Speaker 1: sources say paid the brothers thousands to carry out a
11:02
Speaker 1: staged attack. In attacks, Molette reported to police saying two
11:07
Speaker 1: men slinging racial and homophobic slurs, dousing him in bleach
11:11
Speaker 1: and placing a rope around his neck. The Osandaros were
11:15
Speaker 1: arrested and later released by Chicago police. Simultaneously, the FBI
11:20
Speaker 1: is looking into a threatening letter Smolette received just days
11:23
Speaker 1: before the reported attack. The words, pieced together by magazines,
11:28
Speaker 1: end a drawing depicting a rope around a stick figure's neck.
11:32
Speaker 1: Days later, Smolette said that's what happened to him during
11:35
Speaker 1: the reported attack. You know, I've worked with a lot
11:39
Speaker 1: of cases where there are notes, ransom notes, bank robbery notes,
11:45
Speaker 1: all sorts of notes, and at the get go, these
11:49
Speaker 1: notes that were sent to Jesse Smolette at Empire at
11:54
Speaker 1: the set seem July they were staged. Again. It seemed
12:00
Speaker 1: like they were written by a fifth grade girl trying
12:05
Speaker 1: to write mystery novel. Gabrielle van Rouge with me New
12:11
Speaker 1: York Post investigative reporter, Gabrielle It all started with these notes.
12:17
Speaker 1: And again I'm not strung out. I'm not upset about
12:24
Speaker 1: many aspects of what Smolette did. Nobody was murdered, nobody
12:29
Speaker 1: was killed, nobody was maimed, nobody's dismembered. But what he
12:33
Speaker 1: has done for all of us crime victims through across
12:38
Speaker 1: the country is a huge, huge disservice because this means
12:45
Speaker 1: a lot of victims are going to be questioned because
12:48
Speaker 1: Jesse Smileett allegedly faked the whole hate crime. How do
12:52
Speaker 1: you think gay people feel, how do you think African
12:56
Speaker 1: American people feel? When he faked it? There living through
13:00
Speaker 1: Hublel every day with people really committing hate crimes. One
13:06
Speaker 1: of the first cases I worked on in front of
13:09
Speaker 1: the Georgia Supreme Court was we didn't even know to
13:11
Speaker 1: call it hate crimes. Them, Gabrielle, a string of young
13:16
Speaker 1: black males were shot, always within thirty eight, always in
13:20
Speaker 1: the same position, across the city of Atlanta, and it
13:24
Speaker 1: was hell trying to solve it. That's a hate crime.
13:28
Speaker 1: They were raped and murdered. That is a hate crime.
13:32
Speaker 1: And they always picked out young black males always and
13:38
Speaker 1: now Smolette, according to police, capitalized on fear and hatred
13:45
Speaker 1: just so he could get attention and get a renewal
13:48
Speaker 1: of his contract at Empire and maybe a raise. That's
13:53
Speaker 1: what many people think. All of these just allegations. But
13:57
Speaker 1: tell me about the fake letter. To start with, gabriel
14:00
Speaker 1: ylfon Reiche, Well, he received this letter over at the
14:03
Speaker 1: studios w the MBI since the Fox Empire studios are
14:06
Speaker 1: in Chicago, and it's it's this letter a with a
14:10
Speaker 1: six figure showing a news around its neck and he's
14:13
Speaker 1: kind of magazine cutouts using the N word and some
14:16
Speaker 1: other slurs, and it was very threatening and it also
14:18
Speaker 1: had some type of powder in it, which I think
14:20
Speaker 1: they determined to be aspirin um. So already this was
14:26
Speaker 1: something that was really alarming, you know. And then and
14:28
Speaker 1: then the studio offers, do you want some extra security?
14:30
Speaker 1: Do you want this? Do you want that he's a client?
14:32
Speaker 1: Follow Did I hear you say aspirin? Yeah? But I
14:35
Speaker 1: hear you say aspirin yeah. Okay, that's a fact. As
14:38
Speaker 1: many times as I've read this, I must have forgotten that.
14:41
Speaker 1: So he threatened himself with aspirin. Listen to CBS bring
14:47
Speaker 1: a rate of the brothers home last week only CBS
14:49
Speaker 1: to his cameras were all out inside. Among the items,
14:53
Speaker 1: investigators walked away with a magazine, a piece of paper,
14:57
Speaker 1: along with a writing sample, and a wallet with damps.
15:01
Speaker 1: Multiple sources say Smolette was upset the threatening letter didn't
15:05
Speaker 1: receive a bigger reaction. That's when he orchestrated the attack
15:08
Speaker 1: with the brothers. The rope used by at least one
15:12
Speaker 1: of the brothers purchased at the direction of Smolette. Sources
15:15
Speaker 1: say the brothers are friends with Smolette Ola playing an
15:19
Speaker 1: extra on Empire. Last week. In a televised interview, Smoilette
15:23
Speaker 1: had this to say about the scuffle with his attackers.
15:26
Speaker 1: He said, this maga country punches me right in the face,
15:31
Speaker 1: So I posted the ass back. I noticed the rope
15:34
Speaker 1: around my neck, and I started screaming. The brothers, who
15:37
Speaker 1: were first seen in grainy surveillance video now coming into
15:41
Speaker 1: focus speaking exclusively with me over the phone, saying we're
15:46
Speaker 1: not racist, we're not homophobic, and we are not anti Trump.
15:49
Speaker 1: We were born and raised in Chicago and our American
15:53
Speaker 1: citizens that CBS two Chicago reporter Charlie DeMar Smolette reportedly
15:57
Speaker 1: upset his self and to threatening a letter, where, according
16:02
Speaker 1: to Gabrielle von Rouge at New York Post, he threatened
16:04
Speaker 1: himself with aspirin was not taken seriously, so he went
16:09
Speaker 1: a step further and staged the attack. Kathleen Murphy, North
16:13
Speaker 1: Carolina trial lawyer, you can find her at NC Domestic
16:18
Speaker 1: law dot com. So this is a big crime amongst friends,
16:23
Speaker 1: and that is considered domestic when you are related to
16:29
Speaker 1: like brothers with a family situation. But I can tell
16:34
Speaker 1: you this right now, those two guys, his friends O
16:38
Speaker 1: Law and a blows Ocean Dara, They're gonna roll over
16:43
Speaker 1: and testify that he paid them for the quote attack
16:48
Speaker 1: Kathleen Murphy. Well, well, well, Nancy, is all I can say.
16:53
Speaker 1: The evidence is there, The evidence was there, and the
17:00
Speaker 1: off to the city. The cost to these citizens who
17:02
Speaker 1: have stat taxes is significant and it's only going to
17:05
Speaker 1: get worse for Justice Smollett because the evidence is clear.
17:11
Speaker 1: They didn't do a six count indictment for no reason.
17:16
Speaker 1: That's right. Cook County grand jury hit the Empire actor
17:20
Speaker 1: with six counts disorderly conduct on Tuesday for allegedly staging
17:27
Speaker 1: a hoax, a racist and homophobic hate crime, then lying
17:33
Speaker 1: to police about it for this long. I mean, Karen Start,
17:37
Speaker 1: you're the shrink Karen Start, New York psychologist at Karen
17:41
Speaker 1: Start dot com. How do you create a lie and
17:45
Speaker 1: then you maintain it for so long? Then you drag
17:50
Speaker 1: lawyers and other people into your lie and apparently don't
17:53
Speaker 1: even feel bad about it. That's what's called the pathological liar, Nancy.
17:59
Speaker 1: Somebody who is not only able to create the lives,
18:02
Speaker 1: but they begin to believe the lie they created, so
18:06
Speaker 1: they come across very authentically. They can talk to lawyers,
18:11
Speaker 1: they can claim their innocence and say that they've been
18:15
Speaker 1: wronged when people didn't believe them because they are so
18:20
Speaker 1: a depth at being able to come up with their
18:23
Speaker 1: lives convincingly. Take a listen to our friends Fox five
18:27
Speaker 1: DC reporter Nick smi Night. Those personal trainers are suing
18:30
Speaker 1: Smallest Lawyers for defamation the two brothers, saying they're filing
18:34
Speaker 1: the lawsuit because Smallest Attorneys lie to the media and
18:37
Speaker 1: try to make it appear that they were the culprits
18:40
Speaker 1: in a real homophobic and racist attack. Now the suit
18:43
Speaker 1: doubles down, saying the brothers never knew small att would
18:46
Speaker 1: go to the police because he was simply staging the
18:49
Speaker 1: attack for social media crime stories with Nancy Grace, No
19:08
Speaker 1: man nor any woman is above the law. Chicago attorneys
19:14
Speaker 1: for the brothers, Ola and Bola Assundario firing a shot
19:18
Speaker 1: across the bow of their legal counterparts in Los Angeles
19:22
Speaker 1: representing actor Jessie small Let allegations of a fake hate
19:26
Speaker 1: crime engineered by small d According to Chicago police, the
19:30
Speaker 1: brothers reportedly admitting their involvement in the elaborate hoax, allegedly
19:34
Speaker 1: concocted by the actor to raise his profile and earning
19:38
Speaker 1: potential before Cook County prosecutors. In a surprise, move through
19:43
Speaker 1: the case out. That's right, the case was thrown out.
19:46
Speaker 1: You're hearing wg AND news reporter Julian Cruise, But take
19:51
Speaker 1: a listen to our friend Robin Roberts at ABC. Why
19:54
Speaker 1: do you think you were targeted? I can just assume.
19:57
Speaker 1: I mean, I come really really hard against forty five.
20:03
Speaker 1: I come really really hard against his administration, and I
20:09
Speaker 1: don't hold my tongue. You don't want to ask. I
20:13
Speaker 1: think that's horrible. It doesn't get worse as far as
20:17
Speaker 1: I'm concerned. Were you are aware that he made that statement?
20:20
Speaker 1: I saw it, and there is no doubt in your
20:23
Speaker 1: mind what motivated this attack. I could only go off
20:27
Speaker 1: of their words. I mean, who says empire this maga country,
20:34
Speaker 1: ties a noose around your neck and pours bleach on you,
20:38
Speaker 1: and this is just a friendly fight. I will never
20:40
Speaker 1: be the man that this did not happen to. I
20:43
Speaker 1: have forever changed, and I don't subscribe to the idea
20:47
Speaker 1: that everything happens for a reason. But I do subscribe
20:49
Speaker 1: to the idea that we have the right and the
20:51
Speaker 1: responsibility to make something meaningful out of the things that
20:55
Speaker 1: happened to us, good and bad. Okay, you know as
20:58
Speaker 1: much as I love Gabrielle fun Rouge. Karen Smith, Karen Start,
21:02
Speaker 1: Bobby Kin, Kathleen Murphy. I could just listen to him
21:05
Speaker 1: lying all day long. You were hearing Jesse Smilette lying,
21:11
Speaker 1: according to police, straight to Robin Robert's face, straight to
21:15
Speaker 1: her face. Did she believe him? I don't know, but
21:20
Speaker 1: right at the get go, the story was thin, very thin,
21:24
Speaker 1: with a lot of holes in it. Joining me right now,
21:26
Speaker 1: a forensics expert Special lecturer, University Florida, host of Shattered
21:31
Speaker 1: Souled podcast, Karen Smith. Thanks for being with us. Karen,
21:35
Speaker 1: tell me all the forensic evidence you'd like to get
21:38
Speaker 1: your mits on. First of all, the rope I would
21:42
Speaker 1: like to do. Touch DNA on the rope anybody other
21:44
Speaker 1: than the brothers and Jesse Smilett's DNA on that rope.
21:47
Speaker 1: That'd be my first question. Second question, document examination, the note,
21:52
Speaker 1: the letter. Look at all of that, the ink, the paper,
21:56
Speaker 1: the glue, the magazine it came from, and then compare
21:58
Speaker 1: it with the magazines, stamps and everything found at the
22:02
Speaker 1: brother's apartment. Nancy. This case is such a cluster I
22:07
Speaker 1: can't even begin to tell you. And what really makes
22:09
Speaker 1: me angry is all of the police that did their
22:13
Speaker 1: due diligence. They did their work, and this is what
22:15
Speaker 1: drives cops nuts. They did the work and put in
22:18
Speaker 1: the effort, and they were just thrown under the bus
22:20
Speaker 1: last year by the prosecutor. We did our work, hundreds
22:24
Speaker 1: and hundreds of hours that could have been dedicated to
22:27
Speaker 1: other investigations, all of the forensics, everything that went into it.
22:31
Speaker 1: It is maddening. You know, when I think about real
22:34
Speaker 1: victims out there. Gabrielle Fondrei's New York Post investigative writer.
22:39
Speaker 1: When I think about real victims, victims I've dealt with
22:41
Speaker 1: victims I represented in court, all in inner city Atlanta,
22:46
Speaker 1: for the most part, victims that did not have a
22:49
Speaker 1: voice for themselves. They were too afraid, to uneducated, to
22:55
Speaker 1: beat down, to stand up in a court of law,
22:58
Speaker 1: be heard. And then Jesse Smillett jumps up, I think
23:02
Speaker 1: you'd better rethink that whole quote about holding his tongue.
23:06
Speaker 1: He's not one to hold his tongue. I'm so happy
23:10
Speaker 1: he didn't hold his tongue because now, oh, I can't wait.
23:16
Speaker 1: If they plead this out, I'm going to be so disappointed.
23:19
Speaker 1: I want this to go to trial. I want to
23:21
Speaker 1: be on the front row and I can't wait to
23:24
Speaker 1: watch Jesse Smollett when they playback for the jury these
23:27
Speaker 1: interviews with our friend Robin Roberts, gabriel fundraising. I want
23:32
Speaker 1: to go back, and I know I said it already,
23:35
Speaker 1: and then I moved on to the magazines and how
23:38
Speaker 1: we can tie that, how cops can tie those magazines
23:41
Speaker 1: to Smelette. But I also want to find out why
23:45
Speaker 1: was the case dropped to start with, Let's start right there, Gabrielle. Well,
23:50
Speaker 1: that was immediately extremely suspicious because all of a sudden,
23:53
Speaker 1: it's an early March morning and news comes across the
23:56
Speaker 1: wires that Seth attorney Kim Fox had dropped the charges
23:59
Speaker 1: and there was no explanation at all. He didn't take
24:02
Speaker 1: a please, he didn't reduce it to a violation. He
24:04
Speaker 1: admitted no guilt at all. And it's not often that
24:08
Speaker 1: prosecutors agree to do something like that, you know. The
24:11
Speaker 1: Cook County State's attorney tried to claim that this was
24:13
Speaker 1: based on previous practice, like that they would treat any
24:17
Speaker 1: defendants this way. But they're not throwing out charges, they're
24:20
Speaker 1: reducing them, they're taking please ninety nine percent of cases
24:25
Speaker 1: are pleaded down, So this was already extremely odd. And
24:29
Speaker 1: then as the case started to unfold, as all the
24:31
Speaker 1: public records started to come out, I noticed that the
24:34
Speaker 1: that this case was rife with unethical decisions based on,
24:38
Speaker 1: you know, on Kim Fox's part. At first, she recused
24:41
Speaker 1: herself but didn't appoint a special prosecutor, and then tried
24:45
Speaker 1: to say that it was only a colloquial recusal, which
24:49
Speaker 1: I don't understand in a court of law how there
24:52
Speaker 1: could be such thing as a colloquial recusal. Which is
24:56
Speaker 1: why Judge Tuman eventually appointed a special prosecutor, because he
24:59
Speaker 1: said the entire her investigation from Kim Fox's office was
25:03
Speaker 1: null from the beginning because by appointing her first deputy
25:06
Speaker 1: in her stead was completely invalid. You can't you can't
25:10
Speaker 1: recuse yourself without actually appointing a special prosecutor. So there's
25:15
Speaker 1: a lot of questions why this got dropped, What got
25:18
Speaker 1: into her? What got into Kim Fox? I mean, she
25:21
Speaker 1: had a great career ahead of her, and then all
25:23
Speaker 1: of a sudden she allegedly fudges shows partiality, gets snugged
25:29
Speaker 1: up with Smilette's family, what happened. Well, there's a lot
25:33
Speaker 1: of political implications here. First, we have Tina chen who
25:37
Speaker 1: is a longtime friend of the Obama's who has connections
25:40
Speaker 1: with Michelle Obama. She used to work in her office.
25:42
Speaker 1: And Tina Chen reaches out to Kim Fox. And Kim
25:45
Speaker 1: Fox is a politician through and through. That's just what
25:48
Speaker 1: she is. And Tina chenn is thingless in the Smilette
25:51
Speaker 1: family needs a little bit of help, and you helped
25:53
Speaker 1: them out and she died. She agrees, of course, you know,
25:57
Speaker 1: she starts saying, I'm going to try to get the
25:59
Speaker 1: FBI involved. You know, I'm going to do everything I
26:01
Speaker 1: can to help your family member. This is when Smilett
26:03
Speaker 1: was still being viewed as a victim. And to have
26:06
Speaker 1: you know, a prosecutor that you know, Chicago's lead prosecutor
26:09
Speaker 1: get involved with victim's families like that, already, that's already
26:13
Speaker 1: an ethical issue. So we have Fox's chief ethics office
26:16
Speaker 1: or April Perry come in and say, listen, you know,
26:19
Speaker 1: just to play this one hundred percent straight. This is
26:21
Speaker 1: a high profile case. We're going to be scrutinized to
26:23
Speaker 1: pieces on this. You need to recuse yourself because those
26:26
Speaker 1: text messages are damning. So she decides to recuse herself,
26:30
Speaker 1: but not actually so it begs a lot of questions here,
26:34
Speaker 1: you know, was she trying to curry political favor, was
26:38
Speaker 1: she just trying to not jam up a celebrity? Did
26:42
Speaker 1: she feel some kind of kinships to Smolett? There's really
26:46
Speaker 1: it's really unclear. It's been a mystery all along, and
26:49
Speaker 1: that's something that Kim Fox is going to have to
26:50
Speaker 1: answer as she enters into her new campaign right now
26:53
Speaker 1: for reelection. Mmmmmm, guys, as awesome as you all are,
26:57
Speaker 1: and you got to know that, you have to know that.
27:00
Speaker 1: I just have to listen to Jesse Smilt again. Listen.
27:02
Speaker 1: I went to the subway and got the order. During
27:05
Speaker 1: that time, I texted my manager, thinking that he was
27:08
Speaker 1: still in Australia because he was on an Australian tour
27:10
Speaker 1: with one of his other clients, and I say, YO,
27:13
Speaker 1: call me when you can. He called me immediately, and
27:16
Speaker 1: while he was on the phone, I heard As I
27:20
Speaker 1: was crossing the intersection, I heard Empire and I don't
27:24
Speaker 1: answer to Empire. Empire and I didn't answer. I kept
27:30
Speaker 1: walking and then I heard Empire, so I turned around
27:34
Speaker 1: and I said, did you just say to me? Then
27:36
Speaker 1: I see the attacker masked, and he said this Maga
27:46
Speaker 1: country punches me right in the face. So I punched
27:49
Speaker 1: the ass back and then we started tussling. You know,
27:52
Speaker 1: it was very icy, and we ended up tussling by
27:55
Speaker 1: the stairs, fighting, fighting, fighting. There was a second person
28:00
Speaker 1: involved who was kicking me in my back, and then
28:06
Speaker 1: it just stopped Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. And I
28:20
Speaker 1: looked down. I see that there's a rope around my neck,
28:22
Speaker 1: which I hadn't I had noticed it before you because
28:24
Speaker 1: it was so fast, you know what I'm saying. It
28:26
Speaker 1: was so fast. How long did this all? It felt
28:28
Speaker 1: like minutes, but it probably was like thirty seconds. Honestly,
28:31
Speaker 1: I can't tell you. Honestly, I noticed the rope around
28:34
Speaker 1: my neck and I started screaming and I said, there's
28:36
Speaker 1: a rope around my neck. And did you get any
28:38
Speaker 1: kind of description of the attack? I gave a body description,
28:42
Speaker 1: and I you know, because I saw this, but and
28:45
Speaker 1: you know, right here or whatever, But I didn't see
28:47
Speaker 1: I can't tell you what color their eyes were. I
28:48
Speaker 1: can't tell you. And I did not see anything except
28:52
Speaker 1: a second person. I saw running away and the first person, Yeah,
28:55
Speaker 1: I saw saw his stature. I gave the description as
29:00
Speaker 1: best as I could. You have to understand also that
29:02
Speaker 1: gets Chicago in winter. People can wear ski masks, and
29:06
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna question that. Okay, I could listen to that
29:08
Speaker 1: all day long. That is Jesse Smillette, formerly the star
29:12
Speaker 1: of Empire, the hit series making tons of Money, speaking
29:16
Speaker 1: to our friend ABC, Robin Roberts with Me, Kathleen Murphy,
29:19
Speaker 1: Bobby Chico, and Karen Start Karen Smith and Gabrielle von Rouge,
29:23
Speaker 1: investigative reporter, New York Post. It turns out the attackers
29:26
Speaker 1: are his friends. One is his trainer and the other
29:30
Speaker 1: or the same one is an extra on Empire, the
29:34
Speaker 1: hit series. He's a star of, a star of and
29:37
Speaker 1: he knows both of them. They're brothers for Pete Saint Gabrielle. Yes, ma'am,
29:41
Speaker 1: they are. He knew both of them from the show.
29:44
Speaker 1: They had actually both played as extras. One of them
29:47
Speaker 1: had started being his personal trainer. He would also get
29:50
Speaker 1: drugs for him whenever Jesse wanted. He'd procured ecstasy and
29:53
Speaker 1: cocaine for him on numerous occasions, so kind of relied
29:56
Speaker 1: on him for that kind of stuff. And you know
29:58
Speaker 1: what's really funny about this that I think that you'll
30:01
Speaker 1: enjoy is when you hear Jesse speaking on with Robin
30:05
Speaker 1: talking about how they punched him in the face and
30:07
Speaker 1: how he punched him back. So he actually, according to
30:10
Speaker 1: the brothers, and according to police records that I reviewed,
30:12
Speaker 1: he had told the brothers that he wanted to be
30:16
Speaker 1: able to fight back and that he asked them to
30:18
Speaker 1: pull their punches and to let him get a few
30:20
Speaker 1: licks in so he didn't look like a total, you know, victim,
30:25
Speaker 1: and that he had actually had a chance to fight back.
30:27
Speaker 1: And one of the brothers he didn't trust to throw
30:30
Speaker 1: his punch, so he told him to not even do anything,
30:32
Speaker 1: and he told the other brother to do the majority
30:34
Speaker 1: of the punches. So this whole thing, every detail of it,
30:38
Speaker 1: every literal punch that was thrown, was calculated and constructed
30:42
Speaker 1: by Smolette, according to police. Don't they have Gabrielle fan
30:46
Speaker 1: rage the brothers, those Sadar brothers caught on video buying
30:50
Speaker 1: the masks, Yes, yes, they were caught on video masks.
30:53
Speaker 1: And they were also caught on video purchasing the red
30:56
Speaker 1: hat and the rope that was used for the news.
30:58
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Look, you know, I'm totally a political
31:02
Speaker 1: because I hate all politicians. I think they're all lying,
31:06
Speaker 1: and I try to just hold my nose and vote
31:08
Speaker 1: for the best one, the least offensive one. Every time
31:11
Speaker 1: I vote that, I think can just keep the country
31:13
Speaker 1: in the middle of the road and we'll all do
31:15
Speaker 1: the rest. The Americans will do the rest. Just don't
31:17
Speaker 1: get us in a war. Just that. If you can
31:20
Speaker 1: just do that, then we'll try to figure But this
31:23
Speaker 1: could not have played more into Trump's hands. It's like
31:27
Speaker 1: crazy when you pay your attackers allegedly to wear mega
31:31
Speaker 1: hats and attack you. I mean, what a big way
31:36
Speaker 1: really if you get it on the mail right there,
31:38
Speaker 1: Because now that police have determined that the pay crime
31:41
Speaker 1: didn't actually happen, it completely feeled the right oh and
31:46
Speaker 1: gave them the AMMO that they needed to fight against liberals.
31:49
Speaker 1: It's like, look, they're literally making these things up about
31:51
Speaker 1: Karen Smith with me, forensics expert host Shattered Souls podcast.
31:57
Speaker 1: You've got video surveillance and so many different areas of
32:02
Speaker 1: the brothers, the friends of Smolette buying the masks and
32:04
Speaker 1: the red hat. You've got video of the attackers, kind
32:07
Speaker 1: of like walking off into the distance and not trying
32:10
Speaker 1: to hide nothing. You've got Smilette smiling up at the
32:13
Speaker 1: camera showing off his news. I mean, there are there's
32:17
Speaker 1: a ton of evidence, a ton. You know. I talked
32:20
Speaker 1: about touch DNA on the rope. N He wouldn't even
32:22
Speaker 1: need that. This case has played out and it was
32:26
Speaker 1: tied up with a little pink bow for the prosecutor.
32:29
Speaker 1: The cell record, they had, the Internet infos, they had
32:31
Speaker 1: all of that video surveillance of the brothers buying masks
32:34
Speaker 1: and then admitting to payoff by Jesse Smilett. Listen, if
32:38
Speaker 1: I had brought that to a prosecutor as a case
32:40
Speaker 1: when I was a cop, they would have kissed me
32:42
Speaker 1: on the cheek and said, thank you very much, have
32:44
Speaker 1: a nice day. I don't understand it, Nancy. I just
32:47
Speaker 1: hate it for real victims. And I'm talking about victims
32:51
Speaker 1: of real hate crimes that suffer every day in our
32:54
Speaker 1: country because of pure hate. Now this raises another red flag.
32:59
Speaker 1: Listen to Jesse Smellet digging his hole with his own
33:03
Speaker 1: teeth as he talks to Robin Roberts the phone. When
33:08
Speaker 1: did you because as you said it was a packard
33:11
Speaker 1: account of the timeline valuable information. When did you make
33:17
Speaker 1: that information available to the police. We gave, We had
33:21
Speaker 1: to give the phone records, which they didn't originally ask
33:25
Speaker 1: for my phone records. They asked for my phone. They
33:27
Speaker 1: wanted me to give my phone to the tech for
33:30
Speaker 1: three to four hours. I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna
33:36
Speaker 1: do that. Not gonna hand over his phone claiming he
33:39
Speaker 1: has private things on it when he has been the
33:42
Speaker 1: victim of a hate crime. That was well in addition
33:46
Speaker 1: to the whole made up scenario, when you won't hand
33:49
Speaker 1: over your phone to catch your hate crime attackers. Bobby Jacon,
33:55
Speaker 1: former Special Agent FBI, that's way off. Yeah, you know,
33:59
Speaker 1: for for an African American person in the United States
34:02
Speaker 1: to have a news put around their neck, I can't
34:03
Speaker 1: think of short of being killed. I can't think of
34:06
Speaker 1: a worse crime committed against you. That has to be
34:08
Speaker 1: the single most traumatic event that's ever happened to you
34:11
Speaker 1: in your life. And for you not to be one
34:15
Speaker 1: hundred and one percent cooperative. He had to take my phone,
34:18
Speaker 1: you need it for a couple hours, Great, I'll grab
34:19
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee. I mean, and if you heard
34:21
Speaker 1: his interview, if you're heard, we just heard that long
34:25
Speaker 1: awkward pause. He didn't have an answer on why when
34:28
Speaker 1: when the interview said why, there was this long awkward pause,
34:31
Speaker 1: he just didn't even know. He hadn't even thought about
34:34
Speaker 1: coming up with an excuse on why. This has to
34:36
Speaker 1: be again, the single most traumatic event that ever happened
34:38
Speaker 1: to you, and you're going to not be You're going
34:41
Speaker 1: to guard your phone more than help search for the truth.
34:44
Speaker 1: It's it's all of these indications very very early on
34:47
Speaker 1: in an investigation that tells the police that there is
34:50
Speaker 1: something amiss about what we're being told. Kathleen Murphy way
34:54
Speaker 1: in that the evidence is there. There's no doubt in
34:58
Speaker 1: my mind that this is a clim occurred. I cannot
35:01
Speaker 1: believe it was dismissed originally. And by the way, Nancy,
35:04
Speaker 1: a lot of people are saying, isn't that double jeopardy.
35:06
Speaker 1: Double jeopardy does not attach unless he enters a plea
35:09
Speaker 1: of guilty or there's a trial that is begun. So
35:12
Speaker 1: it is not double jeopardy and the state has the
35:15
Speaker 1: right to pursue this charge. The Chicago Police vowing to
35:18
Speaker 1: investigate the incident with all its might celebrities around the
35:21
Speaker 1: world supporting Smalette. He became even more famous. But then
35:26
Speaker 1: it all fell apart when it turns out he faked
35:29
Speaker 1: the whole thing. What a blow to the police for
35:33
Speaker 1: the charges against him to be dropped, But now they've
35:36
Speaker 1: been resurrected. Gabrielle van Rouge, what exactly are the charges
35:40
Speaker 1: their closs war felony, But it's six counts of disorderly conduct,
35:44
Speaker 1: which the Illinois Penal Code can counts filing a false
35:48
Speaker 1: filly support under disorderly conduct. And based on my reading
35:52
Speaker 1: of it, and I could be wrong, I know that
35:53
Speaker 1: you used to be a prosecutor here, so you might
35:55
Speaker 1: have the upper hand over here. But a clous war
35:57
Speaker 1: felony in Illinois is three years minimum. It's also twenty
36:02
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars fine and you'll have to go do
36:04
Speaker 1: community service. And previously he was charged with sixteen counts
36:07
Speaker 1: of felony disorderly conduct. But potential sentence is he facing, Gabrielle,
36:11
Speaker 1: He's face You know the way that the penal code
36:13
Speaker 1: reads in Illinois. For a class floor felony, you have
36:16
Speaker 1: no less than one year in jail in a max
36:18
Speaker 1: of three years in jail. You'd also have to pay
36:21
Speaker 1: a fine up to twenty five thousand dollars, and any
36:24
Speaker 1: line who's found guilty of disorderly conduct has the complete
36:26
Speaker 1: complete community service in our community if it is available.
36:29
Speaker 1: We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace Crime Stories, signing
36:33
Speaker 1: off goodbye.