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'EMPIRE' Star Convicted of Faking Hate Crime on Self Files Appeal · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Why won't he go away?
0:18
Speaker 1: I'm talking about race attack faker Jesse Smollett. You know
0:25
Speaker 1: when people are given everything beyond their wildest imaginations. Fame.
0:31
Speaker 1: He was the star of Empire, you know, a hit
0:35
Speaker 1: program on cable TV. Many people think he's handsome and charismatic,
0:42
Speaker 1: making money handover fist. What more does this guy want?
0:49
Speaker 1: He's got a loving family, his mother adores him. Well,
0:55
Speaker 1: it ain't over yet. After Jesse Smollette convicted staging a
1:01
Speaker 1: hate crime on himself good gravy, he has now filed
1:07
Speaker 1: an appeal. He is filing an appeal of his conviction
1:13
Speaker 1: for staging an anti gay racist attack on himself and
1:18
Speaker 1: then lying to Chicago police about it, also letting two brothers,
1:25
Speaker 1: the Osendaro brothers, take the fall. But where did the
1:32
Speaker 1: whole thing start? And does this guy have a chance
1:35
Speaker 1: on appeal? I want you to listen to this from
1:40
Speaker 1: the Today Show.
1:41
Speaker 2: No suicidal and I am innocent. I could have said
1:44
Speaker 2: that I was.
1:45
Speaker 3: Guilty a long time ago.
1:47
Speaker 2: Even after a Cook County judge sentenced Jesse Smilett to
1:50
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty days in jail, the disgraced actor
1:53
Speaker 2: turned convicted felon sticky to his story.
1:56
Speaker 4: If I did this, then it means that I sucked
1:58
Speaker 4: my fish in the fears.
2:00
Speaker 2: Vlatamer is in the sputry for over four hundred years,
2:02
Speaker 2: the former empire stars unwavering claim of innocence, ultimately his undoing.
2:07
Speaker 5: You committed hour upon hour upon hour of pure perjury.
2:12
Speaker 2: Judge James Lynn sentencing Smlett to thirty months felony probation,
2:16
Speaker 2: including that jail time, ordering he paid more than one
2:19
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty thousand dollars in restitution to the City
2:22
Speaker 2: of Chicago and pay the maximum fine twenty five thousand dollars.
2:27
Speaker 5: You've turned your life upside down by your misconduct in Shenanigan's.
2:32
Speaker 5: You've destroyed your life as you knew it.
2:34
Speaker 2: As a defiance, Smolette was taken into custody, his family
2:37
Speaker 2: blasting the judge's decision.
2:39
Speaker 1: He's the reason why folks aren't going to report hate crimes.
2:41
Speaker 1: They're the reason why folks aren't going to report hate crimes. Okay,
2:45
Speaker 1: you heard Jesse Smolette going down, swinging, lying through his
2:50
Speaker 1: teeth till the end end. When you hear that reporter
2:53
Speaker 1: going on and on about thirty months felony probation. Probation
3:00
Speaker 1: that means you're not in jail. This guy, after all
3:03
Speaker 1: he put everyone through, after the disservice he did to
3:08
Speaker 1: real crime victims, he's gonna do about five days behind bars.
3:15
Speaker 1: He got says to one hundred and fifty days, and
3:18
Speaker 1: now he's done about five days. I mean'sy grace, This
3:22
Speaker 1: is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us, with
3:25
Speaker 1: me an all star panel. Matthew Mangino, former District Attorney
3:28
Speaker 1: Lawrence County, former Parole board member, author Executioners Told Doctor
3:34
Speaker 1: Sherry Schwartz, forensic psychologists specializing in capital crimes, author of
3:39
Speaker 1: Criminal Behavior and Where Law and Psychology intersect. Paul Zeite,
3:44
Speaker 1: former police commander, who I can't wait to hear what
3:47
Speaker 1: he's gonna say. Author stop him from killing them on
3:51
Speaker 1: Amazon Kindle. But first to Alexis, to Restaurant Crime Online
3:54
Speaker 1: dot Com investigative reporter Alexis, you know the whole thing,
3:59
Speaker 1: go us all the way back to his ridiculous claims
4:03
Speaker 1: of a hate crime perpetrated upon him because he I
4:07
Speaker 1: guess his main thing was that he was gay or
4:12
Speaker 1: because he was black. It was a mixture. When he
4:15
Speaker 1: went out for a three a m subway run. How
4:21
Speaker 1: in the hey has Smolette gotten out after just a
4:24
Speaker 1: few days.
4:24
Speaker 6: So the judge spent almost an hour telling him all
4:29
Speaker 6: of the reasons why he was putting him behind bars.
4:32
Speaker 6: The reason was he was found guilty of five salon
4:35
Speaker 6: accounts of this early conduct, for lying to police about
4:38
Speaker 6: his takee crime. He says that he was attacked at
4:41
Speaker 6: two o'clock in the morning in Chicago, in the dead
4:43
Speaker 6: of winter, absolutely sub freezing weather. Two men, he claimed,
4:48
Speaker 6: wearing red hats that said make America great Again, magahats.
4:51
Speaker 6: He blamed us on Trump. Said they attacked him and
4:54
Speaker 6: said this is Trump country and beat him up and
4:56
Speaker 6: tried to hang him by putting a newsover. At the
4:59
Speaker 6: jury he said this was a big, fat lie and
5:03
Speaker 6: found him guilty of lying. So the judge sentences him
5:06
Speaker 6: to jail. He appeals, well, he first asked the judge,
5:10
Speaker 6: can I have an appeal? The judge says no, You're
5:12
Speaker 6: going right to jail.
5:13
Speaker 1: Goes to jail.
5:14
Speaker 6: His lawyers file acclaim with the appellate court and say
5:18
Speaker 6: he has been sentenced to only five months in jail.
5:22
Speaker 6: Only five months. We want to appeal this. We're going
5:25
Speaker 6: to drag this appeal out longer than five months. So
5:29
Speaker 6: if you keep our client in for the whole five
5:32
Speaker 6: months and then when it's done, the appeal court overturns
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Speaker 6: the conviction, he will have unnecessarily served this time.
5:38
Speaker 1: I don't care. Jesse Smollett hate crime faker walks out
5:44
Speaker 1: of jail after release serving lesson a week of just
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Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty days. Hey, does everybody remember when
5:54
Speaker 1: Paris Hilton went to jail and she was going to
5:58
Speaker 1: do what she got like a six once senatece something
6:00
Speaker 1: like that? She did three weeks maybe because the jail
6:06
Speaker 1: was over a crowded. Was that Nicole Ritchie one of them?
6:10
Speaker 1: And it was high drama. And the bottom line is
6:13
Speaker 1: when you have a sentence like one hundred and fifty days,
6:16
Speaker 1: you're going to get out really quickly anyway. But to
6:20
Speaker 1: petition the court to get out early after what has
6:24
Speaker 1: gone down, take us an hour cut twenty nine. Our
6:27
Speaker 1: friend Patrick ELDWOODWGN.
6:32
Speaker 7: Almost three years after he reported being attacked amid homophobic
6:36
Speaker 7: and racial slurs after Jesse Smolette took the stand in
6:40
Speaker 7: his own defense while being questioned by his attorney, Smolette
6:44
Speaker 7: described the early morning incident, saying he had gone out
6:47
Speaker 7: to Walgreens to buy eggs, but it was closed, so
6:50
Speaker 7: we opted for a subway sandwich store instead. On his
6:53
Speaker 7: way home, Smolette says he crossed paths with two men
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Speaker 7: wearing ski masks, with one of them yelling racial and
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Speaker 7: home homophobic slurs and saying he was in Maga country
7:03
Speaker 7: while recognizing him as an actor on the TV show Empire.
7:08
Speaker 7: Smollette says he threw a punch in his defense but
7:11
Speaker 7: doesn't know if it landed. He fell to the ground
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Speaker 7: and was kicked. He testified that after the attack he
7:18
Speaker 7: didn't even know there was a noose around his neck
7:20
Speaker 7: because quote, I was getting my ass whooped unquote.
7:25
Speaker 1: But yet there were no injuries. He had a time
7:28
Speaker 1: little cut, and I don't know how many pictures he
7:31
Speaker 1: took of it. Now take a listen to our cut
7:33
Speaker 1: thirty three, our friend Charlie Demarcbs and E Chicago.
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Speaker 8: The actor also told the jury that he would do
7:40
Speaker 8: drugs with Abel Osindaro and the two had a physical relationship.
7:43
Speaker 8: He said during a bath house encounter there was some touching.
7:47
Speaker 8: Abel denies those claims.
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Speaker 2: I'm ready to do what I gotta do.
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Speaker 8: It's likely that the case will hinge on whether the
7:53
Speaker 8: jury believes Smolette or brothers Abel and Ola Osindaro, who
7:57
Speaker 8: testified Smolette paid them to fake the attack.
8:00
Speaker 1: Right, let me understand something, Alexis Terrestchuk. The payment was
8:05
Speaker 1: tracked down. Wasn't it a check? The payment was tracked down,
8:10
Speaker 1: And he tried to tell the jury that these two
8:13
Speaker 1: guys that he did drugs with, that he went to
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Speaker 1: a bathhouse with, that he allegedly had romantic attachment with
8:20
Speaker 1: sex with, they're the ones that attacked him, and they're
8:24
Speaker 1: attacked him, and they're the ones he couldn't identify. I
8:26
Speaker 1: no wonder the jury didn't believe him exactly.
8:28
Speaker 6: These are guys that he's been friends with for years,
8:31
Speaker 6: and in fact they were known to people on the
8:33
Speaker 6: set of Empire. They are personal trainers. But he wrote
8:37
Speaker 6: them a check, an absolute paper trail, undeniable paper trail,
8:42
Speaker 6: even though he says it was for something else made
8:45
Speaker 6: maybe drugs or maybe anything else. He can't really remember. Also,
8:48
Speaker 6: he doesn't care because these two he doesn't even know
8:51
Speaker 6: if they were the ones that attacked him, even though
8:53
Speaker 6: they were caught on video.
8:55
Speaker 1: I think we need a shrink, and we need one
8:57
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. Hate crime Baker Empire star Jesse Smolette has
9:04
Speaker 1: walked out of jail after about five days on one
9:08
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty day conviction straight out to doctor Sherry Schwartz.
9:13
Speaker 1: Forensic psychologists joining us, this guy needs a shrink.
9:17
Speaker 9: Well, that does seem to be the consensus, at least
9:22
Speaker 9: in the psychological community. Nancy. Anybody who fakes something like
9:27
Speaker 9: this an illness a crime where they fakes injury, typically
9:32
Speaker 9: what we start to look at is something called factitious disorder.
9:37
Speaker 9: If you think about Munchausen's by proxy, when that's done
9:40
Speaker 9: to other people to get sympathy for yourself. This is
9:43
Speaker 9: kind of where you do it to yourself to get
9:46
Speaker 9: sympathy for yourself. But in this case he might also have,
9:51
Speaker 9: you know, not so much a mental health disorder like
9:55
Speaker 9: that where he's almost sympathetic, but this might have been
9:59
Speaker 9: for personal gain in terms of promoting some movie project
10:02
Speaker 9: that he was working on to get publicity.
10:05
Speaker 1: Oh he got publicity, Doctor Sherry Schwartz. Didn't he like
10:08
Speaker 1: this to rest Chuck, But who's ever going to hire him? Ever?
10:11
Speaker 4: That's the thing.
10:12
Speaker 6: This is his career is absolutely over. Empire was a huge.
10:16
Speaker 1: Chance with his career. What about Lady Justice an appeal
10:20
Speaker 1: bond my rear end. Why do you need a jury
10:24
Speaker 1: if you're gonna then give the defendant an appeal on
10:28
Speaker 1: what the jury just did? Why did you strike a jury? Okay,
10:34
Speaker 1: back to you all like this, ter rest Chuck. I
10:36
Speaker 1: know you're in Hollywood, and that's your mindset. My mindset
10:41
Speaker 1: is about how hard I thought to prove convictions, to
10:46
Speaker 1: prove cases, put a jury through h double l missing work,
10:52
Speaker 1: away from your children, away from your home. You know,
10:54
Speaker 1: nothing drives me crazier than have to be away from
10:57
Speaker 1: the twins. And they're in court all all day long.
11:00
Speaker 1: Listen to this guy whined about how bad he's got.
11:02
Speaker 1: How much is he getting paid an episode?
11:04
Speaker 6: Alexis two hundred thousand dollars an episode? An episode?
11:09
Speaker 1: Did you hear that? Did you hear that? Fining?
11:12
Speaker 3: Carrying on?
11:13
Speaker 1: And he's been behind bars? What's five times twenty four?
11:17
Speaker 1: Is that one hundred and twenty something? He hasn't even
11:21
Speaker 1: been behind bars two hundred hours and he's out.
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Speaker 6: He has he has walked free. The appellic court has
11:30
Speaker 6: three judges. It was not a unanimous decision. It was
11:33
Speaker 6: two to one majority rules, and he walked out of
11:36
Speaker 6: court at eight pm Chicago time. In a whole Hollywood production. Again.
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Speaker 6: You know, Jesse has five bodyguards, he has family members,
11:46
Speaker 6: he has defense attorneys, the biggest entourage you've ever seen
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Speaker 6: outside of the TV show Entourage. It's like everything is
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Speaker 6: a Hollywood production for him.
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Speaker 1: Guys, take a listen to our cut thirty two our
11:56
Speaker 1: friends from WG.
11:57
Speaker 7: And small Let testified he resisted hauling Chicago police because quote,
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Speaker 7: I am a black man in America. I do not
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Speaker 7: trust the police unquote, But later he said responding officers
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Speaker 7: treated him very well. He testified as a gay black man,
12:14
Speaker 7: he felt the incident would emasculate him and hurt his
12:18
Speaker 7: chances for certain types of.
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Speaker 3: Future acting roles.
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Speaker 7: Earlier in the day, Smallhead testified he met the Osendairo
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Speaker 7: brothers through his job on Empire, and that he went
12:28
Speaker 7: to a Chicago bathhouse with one of them where they
12:30
Speaker 7: did drugs and made out. Prosecutors say he recruited the
12:34
Speaker 7: brothers to stage the attack as way to pump up
12:37
Speaker 7: his career. Smallhead has admitted to paying the brothers thirty
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Speaker 7: five hundred dollars, but says that was for weight training
12:45
Speaker 7: and diet consultation.
12:46
Speaker 1: Okay, hi, guys, Nancy Grace here, please join us now
12:56
Speaker 1: on Fox Nation for a brand new investigation, Parallels of
13:01
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13:07
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Speaker 1: exclusively on Fox Nation Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. For
14:22
Speaker 1: those of you just joining us, It's not over with
14:25
Speaker 1: Jesse Smallett. He just won't go away. Or is this
14:27
Speaker 1: part of another PR public relations plan on his part
14:32
Speaker 1: to get more money and another job on camera. Who knows,
14:37
Speaker 1: because reportedly the motive for the original race attack staging
14:43
Speaker 1: was to drum up PR about himself so he would
14:47
Speaker 1: make more money for his role in Empire. You know
14:53
Speaker 1: all the hours the man hours police put into solving
14:58
Speaker 1: the so called anti gay attack on Smolette and last
15:04
Speaker 1: but not least, basically framing the two o Sandaro brothers
15:09
Speaker 1: to take the fall for a fake attack, and now
15:13
Speaker 1: we're supposed to believe his motion for a new trial,
15:18
Speaker 1: his appeal. Let's take another look at the facts. Matthew Mangino,
15:24
Speaker 1: former District Attorney Lawrence County, former Parole Board member, author
15:29
Speaker 1: executioners told go ahead hit me.
15:32
Speaker 10: Well, there's no question that you're angry at Jesse Smollett,
15:37
Speaker 10: but I think we have to separate.
15:39
Speaker 1: I agree with the judges that let him go.
15:42
Speaker 10: Yes, well, and I understand that as well. But you
15:45
Speaker 10: know you're mad at him, but we need to separate
15:48
Speaker 10: the people we're mad at from the people that we're
15:50
Speaker 10: afraid of. And is a this is a class for
15:56
Speaker 10: felony in most cases in Illinois. This this be flat probation,
16:01
Speaker 10: no jail time. You know, because he's a Hollywood name, Uh,
16:08
Speaker 10: you know, should we treat him more harshly than we
16:10
Speaker 10: would typically other people who file false reports with the police.
16:14
Speaker 1: Okay, wait, who can you name me one person that
16:18
Speaker 1: followed a false report with police in your jurisdiction that
16:22
Speaker 1: took it to a jury trial and claimed he was
16:26
Speaker 1: the victim of a racial and homophobic hate crime. Name one?
16:31
Speaker 10: Well, I'm sure.
16:35
Speaker 1: Don't tell me. Yeah they haven't. Who did something like this?
16:38
Speaker 10: Well, I don't know really of anybody who faked their own.
16:42
Speaker 1: Assault, their own hate crime.
16:44
Speaker 10: Wouldn't do that their own hate crime because they don't
16:47
Speaker 10: have anything to gain from it.
16:48
Speaker 1: The worst conjuring Matthew Mangino is the news the news
16:56
Speaker 1: for a black male. Sure have a new to put
17:00
Speaker 1: it around his neck? And then we find out, isn't
17:03
Speaker 1: this right? Alexis trest truck And feel free to correct
17:05
Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong. I'd rather know the truth. Didn't
17:08
Speaker 1: it come out that he took the news off and
17:11
Speaker 1: then put it back on so the cops could get
17:14
Speaker 1: it and their body can footage when they came back.
17:16
Speaker 1: He is screwing around with one of the vilest and
17:20
Speaker 1: most hated symbols in our country. What happened to so
17:25
Speaker 1: many black males? Awful history? And he conjures that up
17:33
Speaker 1: like an evil magician and puts it on and takes
17:36
Speaker 1: it off for effect. Yes, hell, yes, he ought to
17:41
Speaker 1: be in jail. Isn't that what happened? Isn't that what happened?
17:44
Speaker 1: Alexis trestruck.
17:45
Speaker 6: It is and in fact the dud he said that
17:49
Speaker 6: these random attackers put this news on him. The brothers
17:52
Speaker 6: were on video at a store buying the rope. They
17:56
Speaker 6: didn't do this of their own. This wasn't idea. They
18:01
Speaker 6: did this because he told them what to buy, because
18:03
Speaker 6: this would have made the crime more solections.
18:05
Speaker 1: And Matthew Mangino, I mean a renowned lawyer and author,
18:10
Speaker 1: former district attorney now private lawyer, Matthew man Gino, you're
18:15
Speaker 1: telling me that, hey, this happens all the time. They
18:17
Speaker 1: don't go to jail, bs, This does not happen all
18:20
Speaker 1: the time. To prey on the fears of people all
18:24
Speaker 1: across the country, to pray on hatred and injustice and
18:30
Speaker 1: use it for a pr boost to get a raised
18:33
Speaker 1: in your salary. Oh no, no, he needs to be
18:36
Speaker 1: in jail, man Geno.
18:38
Speaker 10: Well, again, you know we're mad at him, we're angry
18:41
Speaker 10: at him. But again, is he is he? Is he
18:44
Speaker 10: a threat to the society?
18:47
Speaker 4: Is he?
18:47
Speaker 10: Is he a person who we should be afraid of,
18:50
Speaker 10: who's going to be turned loose on the streets? I mean,
18:53
Speaker 10: you know, if he wasn't a celebrity, we would have
18:56
Speaker 10: heard nothing about this case. You know, the fact that
18:59
Speaker 10: he's a celebt or the fact that he is it
19:01
Speaker 10: doesn't matter.
19:02
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. That's the whole. If a tree falls
19:05
Speaker 1: of the forest, does anybody hear it? Yeah, it can
19:08
Speaker 1: be heard, even if you're not there. It still makes
19:12
Speaker 1: a sound. Whether he's a celebrity or not. He did
19:15
Speaker 1: this thing.
19:15
Speaker 10: Great, And people in similar situations who are convicted of
19:20
Speaker 10: class four felonies in Illinois don't go to jail.
19:25
Speaker 1: But you haven't been able to name another similar situation.
19:28
Speaker 10: Have you another actor who's done something like this?
19:32
Speaker 1: No, I don't know if any anyone, anyone that's done
19:35
Speaker 1: something like this. Prayed on prejudices and hate and a horrible,
19:41
Speaker 1: hateful history of targeting people and the worst conjuring of
19:48
Speaker 1: all the news. I mean, it goes on and on
19:52
Speaker 1: and on. I want to go to Paul Zych, former
19:56
Speaker 1: police commander, author of Stop Him From Killelling Them on
20:00
Speaker 1: Amazon Kindle Paul's Eye, What do you think?
20:05
Speaker 4: Well, I think you had two dozen detectives that engage
20:10
Speaker 4: in three thousand hours plus of investigation to bring an
20:16
Speaker 4: offender to justice that did not exist. And the fact
20:22
Speaker 4: that the officers were chasing essentially a ghost is something
20:27
Speaker 4: they're not equipped really, And you could go two careers
20:31
Speaker 4: without finding this exact situation where a a top flight
20:36
Speaker 4: actor or any sort of high profile individual, or any
20:40
Speaker 4: victim so to speak, would make up an entire story
20:44
Speaker 4: and have props and have all these other things to
20:47
Speaker 4: make you believe that these terrible things had happened. Furthermore,
20:52
Speaker 4: it also opens the door for an arrest to be
20:55
Speaker 4: made of the wrong people or people that never were involved.
20:59
Speaker 4: You know, we're we're so worried about people being in prison.
21:02
Speaker 4: Who have you know, twenty thirty years ago didn't do
21:06
Speaker 4: what they were accused of doing. This exact setup, this
21:10
Speaker 4: exact paradigm, could have created a situation where if they
21:16
Speaker 4: believed him and not these other individuals, the people that
21:19
Speaker 4: he hired to commit these crimes, they could be in
21:22
Speaker 4: prison for the next twenty years. And who's looking at that,
21:26
Speaker 4: and not to mention the you know, the political motivation
21:30
Speaker 4: behind it all. That's just sickening. And it really for
21:35
Speaker 4: me and law enforcement in me as a human being,
21:38
Speaker 4: it is the worst within mankind for something like this
21:43
Speaker 4: to happen to be completely false, and nobody's really prepared
21:49
Speaker 4: for that. But guess what it happens, and it just did.
21:52
Speaker 1: In the last hour, Star of Empire or Justice, Mollett
21:57
Speaker 1: demands a new trial after he stayed for faking a
22:01
Speaker 1: hate crime on himself. In the last weeks, the Empire
22:05
Speaker 1: Star files the appeal in an investigation where Chicago cops
22:10
Speaker 1: conclude Smolette hired the two Osendaro brothers to carry out
22:15
Speaker 1: the crime. He was sentenced to wait for it one
22:18
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty days in jail last year, but because
22:23
Speaker 1: of all of his moaning and groaning and crying and sndting,
22:28
Speaker 1: he actually got out on an appeal bond to walk
22:33
Speaker 1: free until his case is decided. Is there a chance
22:36
Speaker 1: this guy could somehow swing a new trial? You know,
22:43
Speaker 1: Paul Siche as go ahead, I'll circle back to sch
22:46
Speaker 1: go ahead.
22:47
Speaker 10: Yeah, okay, real quick, this is my advantage, you know.
22:50
Speaker 10: And again, you know, I understand that the time that
22:53
Speaker 10: was put into this case, but you had twenty five
22:56
Speaker 10: police officers investigating a false report to the police. There
23:01
Speaker 10: were eight hundred homicides.
23:03
Speaker 1: Oh wait a minute, wait a minute. You had all
23:05
Speaker 1: these cops investigating what they believed to be a hate
23:10
Speaker 1: crime and possible attempt to murder even by putting your
23:15
Speaker 1: moose around his neck on a celebrity because he's black,
23:20
Speaker 1: because he's gay. That's what they were investigating. And then
23:23
Speaker 1: old roads led back to Jesse Smollett. Right, they found
23:28
Speaker 1: the purple all right, it was Smollett.
23:30
Speaker 10: Yeah, let's put it in perspective. Eight hundred homicides in
23:33
Speaker 10: Chicago and you got twenty five police officers investigating this.
23:37
Speaker 1: This No, you are not turning this back around on
23:41
Speaker 1: the cops. They think that the mole men are out there. Wait,
23:46
Speaker 1: alexis Terreshak. At some point did he say that the
23:48
Speaker 1: purpse threw bleach on him? He did? Oh, dear Lord
23:52
Speaker 1: in Heaven, I mean, come on, Zike, help me out here.
23:55
Speaker 1: You hear men, Geno if you believe that there are
23:59
Speaker 1: purps out there that are throwing bleach on a victim,
24:04
Speaker 1: on beating them, wrapping a noose around their neck, taunting them. Yeah,
24:10
Speaker 1: you're gonna look for the purpse. And then the fact
24:13
Speaker 1: that the victims of celebrity making this crime high profile,
24:18
Speaker 1: giving your city a black eye. Yes, the cops are
24:21
Speaker 1: all over a potential hate crime. Because hate doesn't die,
24:25
Speaker 1: that purp will do it again and again and release
24:29
Speaker 1: his hate. In another way, the purp had to be stopped.
24:32
Speaker 1: And you've got Mengino trying to turn this around on
24:35
Speaker 1: a cop. So there's that question. But this is what
24:38
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you earlier. It makes me think,
24:42
Speaker 1: what's it all for? Why did I beat my brains
24:47
Speaker 1: out trying to put bad guys behind bars every day,
24:53
Speaker 1: working till three and four in the morning sometimes for
24:58
Speaker 1: this for the pearl to be let out? How do
25:02
Speaker 1: you think the Ousindari brothers feel. How do you think
25:05
Speaker 1: that Gurrs feel? The cops his stand by and see
25:11
Speaker 1: all that work, all that effort for what what about it? Zike?
25:17
Speaker 4: Well, here's the thing we talked about those twenty four officers,
25:21
Speaker 4: and you can imagine the emotions they're going through.
25:24
Speaker 1: I bet they feel defeated.
25:26
Speaker 4: Defeated absolutely, they put all that in for nothing. Any
25:29
Speaker 4: good cop that's worth their weight, and there's a lot
25:32
Speaker 4: of them in this country, by the way, take that
25:35
Speaker 4: as a personal insult that somebody in their city could
25:40
Speaker 4: possibly be the victim of a hate crime and have
25:43
Speaker 4: all these heinous things done to them. Their position is
25:46
Speaker 4: going to be, I'm not going home. I'm not going
25:49
Speaker 4: to bed until I find the people that did this
25:52
Speaker 4: and bring them to justice, not on my watch, and
25:55
Speaker 4: have all that be turned around and be an absolute
25:58
Speaker 4: farce and just sham of the criminal justice system. Those officers,
26:04
Speaker 4: I guarantee you are defeated. How they may even need
26:07
Speaker 4: counseling at the end of that.
26:09
Speaker 1: I mean, when you work that hard. I mean, Alexis Teschut,
26:13
Speaker 1: you have been around me when I've been working on
26:15
Speaker 1: a case. I live it, I breathe it, I ate it,
26:18
Speaker 1: I drink it. That's what I think about until it's solved,
26:21
Speaker 1: and that can take days, weeks, months, sometimes longer. And
26:26
Speaker 1: when you finally crack a case, it finally goes to trial,
26:32
Speaker 1: and then this, I mean, I agree with Zych It's
26:35
Speaker 1: just such a defeat for everyone that worked the case.
26:40
Speaker 6: And you know, the police officers, they in the very
26:43
Speaker 6: beginning believed him. They believe Smullett. They actually were stopping
26:49
Speaker 6: so many people because he had given a description of attackers,
26:53
Speaker 6: so they were questioning everybody in town. They were going
26:57
Speaker 6: to find the perpetrators. Little did they know they were
27:00
Speaker 6: his two friends that he was hanging out with all
27:01
Speaker 6: the time, and he paid to do this. But they
27:04
Speaker 6: were very serious about trying to find the suspect.
27:07
Speaker 1: Don't you know that prosecutor is besides himself. Take a
27:11
Speaker 1: listen to our cut the four.
27:14
Speaker 11: This jury worked so hard, and for mister Smollette to
27:17
Speaker 11: get up in front of them and lie for hours
27:21
Speaker 11: and hours and hours, that.
27:24
Speaker 3: Really compounded his misconduct.
27:27
Speaker 11: And quite frankly, when I saw that happen in the courtroom, at.
27:32
Speaker 3: Least for me as a trial lawyer that.
27:35
Speaker 11: Spent my life in the courtroom, we don't expect defendants
27:38
Speaker 11: to do that.
27:39
Speaker 3: Defendants have a right to go to trial.
27:41
Speaker 11: Defendants have a right to argue that their case has
27:43
Speaker 11: not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. But defendants do
27:46
Speaker 11: not have the right to go in front of a
27:48
Speaker 11: jury and lie under oath. Mister Smollett would not have
27:52
Speaker 11: lost this case as he did today unless the jury
27:55
Speaker 11: found that he lied to them, And so that was
27:58
Speaker 11: something that I was very proud that this jury came
28:01
Speaker 11: to the conclusion that he's guilty, and the fact that
28:04
Speaker 11: he came up with a completely ridiculous story to explain
28:08
Speaker 11: his misconduct did not apparently have an impact on the
28:11
Speaker 11: jury's verdict.
28:12
Speaker 1: Boy, I'd love to hear what the grs had to
28:14
Speaker 1: say today. Take a listen now to ourkud the four
28:18
Speaker 1: A Alpha.
28:20
Speaker 3: There are two things that I think stuck with the jury.
28:23
Speaker 11: Number one, I think my basic argument that it is
28:26
Speaker 11: ridiculous to think that Smolette left his apartment on the
28:30
Speaker 11: night of January twenty ninth at two o'clock in the
28:33
Speaker 11: morning to go buy eggs, and that that's his explanation
28:36
Speaker 11: for why he ended up right at that intersection, right
28:39
Speaker 11: at two o'clock in the morning that the brother said
28:42
Speaker 11: is where he told.
28:42
Speaker 3: Them the attacks should take place.
28:44
Speaker 11: So the fact that it actually happened that way, I
28:47
Speaker 11: think was pretty profound. I also think that sometimes it's
28:50
Speaker 11: simple things. He actually rigged that rope, after that rope
28:56
Speaker 11: got put on him, I showed the picture to the jury.
28:59
Speaker 3: Pictures don't lie.
29:00
Speaker 11: Those pictures showed that he actually, after he went through
29:05
Speaker 11: this fake attack, wanted to make it look better, and
29:08
Speaker 11: he jimmied with the rope to make the noose look
29:10
Speaker 11: closer to his throat and rustled around because the rope
29:13
Speaker 11: you saw in the courtroom was nice and neat around
29:15
Speaker 11: his neck, because old Austin Daryl didn't have time to
29:19
Speaker 11: do much with it, because a car came and so
29:21
Speaker 11: he ran away.
29:22
Speaker 3: He left the rope next to his face.
29:24
Speaker 11: Small lut got up put it around his neck, and
29:27
Speaker 11: then when it didn't look bad enough, he changed it.
29:30
Speaker 11: And I think that impacted the jury.
29:32
Speaker 1: I like this terrest check. Is it true that Smolette
29:35
Speaker 1: refused to eat? It sounds like a child refusing to eat,
29:40
Speaker 1: having a little tantrum. He wouldn't eat behind bars, And
29:43
Speaker 1: for Pete's sint, it's the local jail. Anybody ever seen
29:47
Speaker 1: Andy and Mayberry? For Pete's sake, when Otis would let
29:49
Speaker 1: himself in and out, it's not like he's in the pen.
29:53
Speaker 1: He's not in Alcatraz, he's not in mac security in
29:56
Speaker 1: the hole. For Pete's sake, he wouldn't eat.
29:59
Speaker 6: So claimed that he had given up food for Lent,
30:04
Speaker 6: so he was fasting for the entire duration of Lent,
30:07
Speaker 6: the forty days of Lent. So he said that he
30:11
Speaker 6: gave up food six days before he actually was sentenced
30:16
Speaker 6: to jail. So he I guess at this point is
30:18
Speaker 6: now not eaten for eleven days, that it was a
30:20
Speaker 6: religious thing.
30:21
Speaker 1: So he was going to starve for forty days. He
30:25
Speaker 1: was not going to eat for forty days, the forty
30:27
Speaker 1: days preceding Easter. Do I understand you? Yes, Okay, that's
30:32
Speaker 1: a lie. There's no way Jesse Smillette was not going
30:34
Speaker 1: to eat for forty days. That's just that's just not true.
30:38
Speaker 1: But fine, another lie by Jesse Smilette. And now he's
30:42
Speaker 1: dragging Easter into it. Did you hear that, man, Gino,
30:46
Speaker 1: he's dragging Easter.
30:47
Speaker 10: In Well, the only person I know this fasted for
30:49
Speaker 10: forty days was Jesus.
30:51
Speaker 1: And just do not do not start on him. Don't
30:55
Speaker 1: do not. I don't even want to hear him dragged
30:57
Speaker 1: into this conversation for Pete's sake. But I do agree
31:01
Speaker 1: that you're right. That's the only person I've ever known
31:04
Speaker 1: to starve himself for forty days and forty nights, and
31:09
Speaker 1: although he was greatly tempted, he didn't give in small
31:14
Speaker 1: atte However, it's still lying through his teeth. So alexis
31:18
Speaker 1: terrest shuck. He had nothing but water behind bars, correct,
31:24
Speaker 1: the main streets of the Cook County Local Jail, Right,
31:27
Speaker 1: it is.
31:27
Speaker 6: But the Cook County Jail is not a cush jail.
31:30
Speaker 6: It isn't notoriously bad jail.
31:33
Speaker 1: You know what do you think jail is? Alexis terrestruck.
31:36
Speaker 1: Where are you joining me from Rodeo Drive this morning?
31:39
Speaker 6: No, I'm not on Rodeo Drive, but I am in
31:42
Speaker 6: Los Angeles.
31:44
Speaker 3: But jail is jail.
31:46
Speaker 6: But the Cook County Jail is bad as well. It's
31:49
Speaker 6: not a nice one.
31:50
Speaker 1: Well, it's jail. What do you wanted to be a spot?
31:52
Speaker 10: Well?
31:52
Speaker 6: I also think that he was getting fairly special treatment,
31:56
Speaker 6: but they.
31:57
Speaker 1: Said that they Well, you're right about that. Didn't he
32:00
Speaker 1: get moved from one place to the next so he
32:03
Speaker 1: could be what did he get to the medical ward
32:06
Speaker 1: so he could have a different surrounding he was in?
32:09
Speaker 1: You know what? Take a listen to hour cut see
32:12
Speaker 1: this is Leah Hope ABC seven.
32:14
Speaker 12: Four days into the one hundred and fifty day sentence.
32:17
Speaker 12: Jesse Smollett remains in protective custody at the Cook County Jail,
32:21
Speaker 12: and his family remained steadfast in their support of the
32:24
Speaker 12: former TV star who was convicted for lying to police
32:27
Speaker 12: about a hate crime hoax.
32:30
Speaker 3: He's very strong. It's a very angering situation. It's been
32:34
Speaker 3: a complete mental marathon for him and my family. But
32:37
Speaker 3: he's very strong. He's very focused.
32:39
Speaker 12: Smollet's youngest brother visited him yesterday at the jail, where
32:42
Speaker 12: Smollett is in a cell by himself and being monitored
32:46
Speaker 12: in the medical Way.
33:01
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Welcome back, guys. Remember Smolette
33:06
Speaker 1: to Chicago police. He was attacked on a dark street
33:10
Speaker 1: by two masked strangers that put a noose around his
33:15
Speaker 1: neck signifying a lynching of a black male, pouring chemicals
33:21
Speaker 1: on him while yelling racist, homophobic slurs. They somehow even
33:27
Speaker 1: to work in They somehow even managed to work in
33:32
Speaker 1: support for Donald Trump. Well that's quite the kinky dink.
33:37
Speaker 1: The brothers who actually testified in court told the jury
33:40
Speaker 1: Smullett hired them to fake the attack only because he
33:45
Speaker 1: wanted more money and to bolster boost his celebrity profile.
33:52
Speaker 1: Smollett later said that in the days before the fake
33:57
Speaker 1: race attack, he and the brothers were together, but not
34:00
Speaker 1: to rehearse the attack. They were actually just getting high
34:04
Speaker 1: on pot. Matthew man Gino, former District Attorney Lawrence County,
34:09
Speaker 1: former Parole board member author Executioners, told Matthew, the medical
34:14
Speaker 1: wing is a cushy area. You're not in general population.
34:21
Speaker 1: There are very few inmates in there. There nurses walking around,
34:24
Speaker 1: they're they're measuring your hydration and your pulse and all that.
34:29
Speaker 1: Why was he in the medical wing?
34:32
Speaker 10: Well, you're right, that's the medical wing is like a
34:35
Speaker 10: hospital within a correctional facility. Uh, you know, maybe it's
34:40
Speaker 10: because he was starving himself. I don't know. You know
34:43
Speaker 10: that that's curious that he would be in the medical
34:46
Speaker 10: wing other than his absurd fasting. But again, should he
34:51
Speaker 10: even be in jail is the question.
34:54
Speaker 1: I believe that the jury decided that, and you're still
34:57
Speaker 1: talking about it.
34:58
Speaker 10: The jury decided he was guilt, The judge decided that
35:01
Speaker 10: he had to go to jail. And again, if you're
35:05
Speaker 10: going to look at similar class for felonies in Illinois,
35:10
Speaker 10: they they don't involve jail.
35:12
Speaker 1: Again again, Matthew Mangino, You keep talking about similar crists,
35:18
Speaker 1: but yet you have been unable to name one crime
35:23
Speaker 1: that you can specify that is similar to this crime.
35:29
Speaker 1: The breadth of his hopes on Lady Justice is beyond
35:36
Speaker 1: compare and still lying through his tea as he SIPs
35:42
Speaker 1: ice water. Take a listen to our cut e from Fox.
35:46
Speaker 13: Jesse Smilette going free, at least for now while he
35:49
Speaker 13: tries to get his sentence overturned.
35:51
Speaker 3: The appeals court ordered.
35:53
Speaker 13: Jesse's released during the appeals process. He will first have
35:57
Speaker 13: to post a bond of one hundred and fifty thousand
35:58
Speaker 13: dollars before he's left out of Coke County Jail, although
36:01
Speaker 13: it's unclear when exactly he'll be able to walk free.
36:05
Speaker 13: Jesse started serving his five months last Thursday, and immediately
36:09
Speaker 13: after the judge sentenced him, he started shouting that he
36:12
Speaker 13: was innocent and raising his fists in the air as
36:15
Speaker 13: he was taken out of the court in handcuffs. Tense
36:18
Speaker 13: moments inside of the courtroom in this video, his defense
36:22
Speaker 13: team and his family members never stopped asking for his release,
36:25
Speaker 13: claiming that Jesse was in physical harm while behind bars.
36:30
Speaker 3: They cited racist and.
36:31
Speaker 13: Homophobic threats that they had received, and also said Jesse
36:35
Speaker 13: was highly susceptible to contracting COVID nineteen while in jails.
36:41
Speaker 1: Really racist and homophobic threats. Again, that second verse same
36:49
Speaker 1: as the first Alexis dress check. That's what he claimed
36:52
Speaker 1: the first time. For all I know is Smolette from
36:54
Speaker 1: the Cook County payphone calling his family. I mean, they're
36:59
Speaker 1: tuning up with that again. I mean, if these threats
37:03
Speaker 1: were real, it would be different. But they've already been
37:06
Speaker 1: proved to be a line, which doesn't injustice to every
37:09
Speaker 1: hate crime victim out there that has been targeted because
37:12
Speaker 1: they're black, because they're gay, because they're Asian, because they're
37:15
Speaker 1: a woman, because they're filling the blank hate hate because
37:20
Speaker 1: of who you are, and they're praying on that again.
37:26
Speaker 6: You know, prinaters that are incarcerated complain all the time
37:30
Speaker 6: about how they have so little access to the outside world.
37:33
Speaker 6: It's very extensive to make a phone call.
37:35
Speaker 1: The calls are collect number one, but go ahead.
37:39
Speaker 6: And so the fact that they're saying after five days
37:44
Speaker 6: that social media Twitter Instagram is affecting how Jesse is
37:49
Speaker 6: mister Smollett is being treated behind bars doesn't compute. It
37:53
Speaker 6: just doesn't make sense that they think people who are
37:55
Speaker 6: saying things about him on social media would then somehow
37:58
Speaker 6: affect people behind bars. If that information has infiltrated, you know,
38:03
Speaker 6: some sort of scary group behind bars, it's going to
38:06
Speaker 6: then target Smallett. It defies logic.
38:10
Speaker 1: You know, Matthew me and Gino, high profile lawyer is
38:12
Speaker 1: joining us. A former district attorney and Lawrence County now author. Matthew,
38:18
Speaker 1: how many times as one of your clients gotten an
38:23
Speaker 1: appeal bond, which means after you're convicted at trial, typically
38:27
Speaker 1: by a jury, the judges, oh, you know what, Never
38:31
Speaker 1: mind about that conviction thing, You're going to walk free
38:33
Speaker 1: to an appeals court, for instance, the Illinois Supreme Court
38:39
Speaker 1: rules on your case, and then after they rule, maybe
38:43
Speaker 1: you can appeal it on up to the Circuit Court
38:46
Speaker 1: of Appeals and after that, hey, maybe you can take
38:48
Speaker 1: it all the way to the US Supreme Court. You
38:50
Speaker 1: just don't know how far this appeal is going to go.
38:53
Speaker 1: But the whole time you can stay out behind bars.
38:56
Speaker 1: I mean, why even have a jury trial?
38:57
Speaker 10: Well, to answer your question, you know, it's not entirely
39:02
Speaker 10: unusual to get an appeal bond.
39:05
Speaker 1: How many you had, Well.
39:06
Speaker 10: I'm just just let me finish. It's not entirely unusual
39:11
Speaker 10: to get one from a trial judge who heard the case,
39:15
Speaker 10: who thinks that maybe you have an appeal that has
39:18
Speaker 10: some merit to it, based on him having observed the trial.
39:22
Speaker 10: So you know, he made grant that. It is unusual
39:25
Speaker 10: to within five days at least in my experience, to
39:28
Speaker 10: have an appellate court intervene and say this person should
39:33
Speaker 10: have an appeal bond over the denial of the trial judge.
39:37
Speaker 10: That's unusual. I can't say that I've ever seen that.
39:42
Speaker 1: Can I ask you a question? Yeah, how many times
39:45
Speaker 1: as a prosecutor did you get a conviction on a
39:49
Speaker 1: case and then that person get out on an appeal bond?
39:53
Speaker 10: It's rare because I never.
39:56
Speaker 1: Had it happen to me as the prosecutor. Not once.
39:59
Speaker 1: Did one person that I took a trial and there's
40:01
Speaker 1: the commission get out while they appealed the conviction. That
40:05
Speaker 1: never happened. And that was ten solid years of inter
40:09
Speaker 1: city Atlanta high crime.
40:10
Speaker 10: I mean, I don't disagree with you, so never never,
40:13
Speaker 10: and you're here. But if you have it, if you
40:16
Speaker 10: have a you're not answering.
40:17
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Matthew Man. You know you're not answering. How
40:19
Speaker 1: often did that ever happen to you? Did it ever happen?
40:23
Speaker 10: I would say sometimes maybe in eight years or a judge,
40:28
Speaker 10: a judge granted and at pilbond when in fact.
40:31
Speaker 1: That's one of your cases. I didn't hear the number.
40:34
Speaker 10: I say a couple you know, the district attorney. Every
40:36
Speaker 10: case was mine. So I say a couple of times
40:40
Speaker 10: it's happened, all.
40:41
Speaker 1: Right, I've never had it happen. Who's jumping in? Is
40:44
Speaker 1: that Paul's I?
40:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, Nance, I'd just like to make a quick comment,
40:47
Speaker 4: and that is, you know, when you look at this
40:49
Speaker 4: from the flip side, let's just say he would have
40:51
Speaker 4: been successful. Let's say that that the his plot would
40:55
Speaker 4: not have been discovered. He essentially would be setting up
41:00
Speaker 4: one or two or more people to spend you know,
41:04
Speaker 4: a decade or two behind bars just to promote his career.
41:09
Speaker 4: And that angle is not really being thought of in
41:13
Speaker 4: this Yeah, he lied, Yes he wasted a lot of time,
41:16
Speaker 4: Yes he had a lot of resources diverted to him.
41:20
Speaker 4: But if his end game would have happened, the perversion
41:23
Speaker 4: of justice would have been unimaginable.
41:27
Speaker 1: You know, you're right. Those Sadari brothers could have gone
41:30
Speaker 1: down for years on end for a hate crime for
41:34
Speaker 1: throwning bleach on small At, for beating him up, for
41:38
Speaker 1: attacking him, and then putting a noose around his neck.
41:42
Speaker 1: Doctor Sherry Schwartz, what exactly is a pathological liar?
41:47
Speaker 9: Well, this is somebody who I mean to put it
41:51
Speaker 9: really simply, if their lips are moving, they're lying. That's
41:55
Speaker 9: how you can think about them, because the lies literally
41:59
Speaker 9: just come out out of their mouths with great deal
42:01
Speaker 9: of ease. Research on pathological liars shows that, you know,
42:05
Speaker 9: if they're hooked up to like an EKG right to
42:10
Speaker 9: check their pulse and things like that, that they lie
42:14
Speaker 9: and they really don't experience that same kind of physical
42:17
Speaker 9: reaction that somebody who's telling a lie that doesn't normally
42:20
Speaker 9: lie would, like anxiety and things like that, heightened arousal.
42:25
Speaker 9: They just lie for the sake of lying.
42:29
Speaker 1: Lie for the sake of lying. To Alexis Terrestia Crime
42:33
Speaker 1: online dot Com investigative reporter Smallest Lawyers filed what we
42:40
Speaker 1: call an emergency motion, claiming that if he stayed in jail,
42:46
Speaker 1: he would have a physical threat even though he was
42:50
Speaker 1: being held in protective custody. What are the grounds on
42:57
Speaker 1: which his defense lawyers argued he should be out on
43:01
Speaker 1: appeal bond.
43:02
Speaker 6: Well, that is what they say. They say that he
43:04
Speaker 6: is in danger of being threatened by people. But they
43:07
Speaker 6: also said, look, this appeal could take months and months,
43:12
Speaker 6: a much much longer than one hundred and fifty days
43:15
Speaker 6: that our client has been sentenced to jail. So if
43:18
Speaker 6: in the very end, you know, one year from now,
43:20
Speaker 6: his appeal is granted and his conviction is a returned,
43:24
Speaker 6: he will have already served that time and you can't
43:28
Speaker 6: take that back.
43:29
Speaker 10: You can't.
43:30
Speaker 6: There's no way to fix that. You serve time that
43:34
Speaker 6: you weren't supposed to ultimately serve. So that is what
43:37
Speaker 6: they argued. That the appeal would take longer than the
43:40
Speaker 6: sentence would, so he should be out on bond during
43:44
Speaker 6: that time. And in fact, they imposed one on him
43:47
Speaker 6: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and they said, but
43:51
Speaker 6: you don't have to pay that upfront, but if he
43:52
Speaker 6: misses any more court cases, he's got to pay that.
43:56
Speaker 6: So many allowances made for them.
43:59
Speaker 1: Jesse Mallett now demands a new trial. You know what,
44:05
Speaker 1: Be careful what you wish, my dear for, you will
44:08
Speaker 1: surely get it. A new trial. Could that mean a
44:11
Speaker 1: new sentence, A really long sentence. We wait as just
44:16
Speaker 1: as unfolds. Goodbye friend,