![]() Weisberg says those who fib in initial reports to police are frequently quick to recant and often aren’t charged if they take it back immediately. Last month, a man in the Chicago suburb of Wheaton was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly lying to police that he had been robbed in a parking garage at gunpoint. He pleaded guilty and did no time in prison.ĭisorderly conduct charges for filing a false police report aren’t uncommon and are sometimes tied to insurance fraud. He concocted the story, even cutting his own forehead with a rock, to conceal from his wife that he never had any tickets. While it is among the biggest disorderly conduct cases in Illinois history, it's not the only such case to have made a splash in the news.Ī Canadian, Robert Spearing, was charged with disorderly conduct in 2011 after Chicago police said he lied about being beaten and robbed of tickets to an Oprah Winfrey show. The Smollett case was certainly unique in how it involved a star actor and in its sensational claims and counterclaims - first by Smollett, who is Black and gay, that he was the subject of an attack and then by police that he had made it all up. ![]() HOW UNIQUE IS IT FOR SUCH CHARGES TO BE BROUGHT? “I’d be shocked if he spent one day in jail,” said Andrew Weisberg, a Chicago-based criminal attorney and a former Cook County prosecutor. It’s more likely that a judge would sentence him to probation and perhaps order him to perform community service. But convictions can still carry potential prison time of up to three years.Īlthough Smollett was found guilty Thursday of five of the six counts, his lack of criminal history and the fact that no one was seriously hurt make actual time behind bars unlikely. The charges were listed as class 4 felonies, which are among the least serious felonies in Illinois. Some states don’t categorize false police reports as disorderly conduct. He faced six counts of disorderly conduct under a subsection of the law that prohibits false reports to police. The 39-year-old was charged under Illinois’ disorderly conduct statute, which encompasses a wide range of offenses, from making prank 911 calls to placing harassing calls as a debt collector. ![]() Here’s a look at the charges Cook County jurors heard testimony about: But in February 2020, after a special prosecutor looked into the case, a new six-count indictment was filed. Initial charges brought in February 2019 that accused the former “Empire” actor of faking the assault were soon after tossed. CHICAGO (AP) - The twists, turns and oddities of the legal saga surrounding Jussie Smollett’s claim in 2019 that he was the target of a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago culminated in a weeklong trial, which concluded with a jury convicting Smollett on five counts of disorderly conduct. ![]()
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