A grand jury in Chicago indicted Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts of disorderly conductfor allegedly lying to police about being the victim of a racist and homophobic hate crime. As we told you, he was charged last month with felony disorderly conduct for the alleged false report he made on January 29th.
Jussie and his attorneys have denied the allegations against him. Mark Geragos called the indictment “prosecutorial overkill,” and added, “This redundant and vindictive indictment is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make headlines in order to distract from the internal investigation launched to investigate the outrageous leaking of false information by the Chicago Police Department and the shameless and illegal invasion of Jussie's privacy in tampering with his medical records.” For the record, cops said that they’re looking for people within the department who may have leaked investigation details to the press before his arrest.
Jussie will be arraigned on Thursday. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.
·ONE MORE THING! At least 50 employees may have been fired from Northwestern Memorial Hospital for accessing Jussie’s medical profile and records. One of those employees – “Susan” – said that with one click of her mouse, she was fired last week. “Simply put, it was just morbid curiosity,” she explained. “I went into the charting system and started to search his name. I clicked just once. I never clicked into his chart.” The hospital wouldn’t comment on the situation due to HIPAA restrictions and company policy preventing him from commenting on any employee's employment status.
Source: CBS Chicago