Judge scolds Jussie Smollett at sentencing — Full Video

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Stacks of pleadings are high. I've got stacks on my desk that are unprecedented And we had to wade through all of them and it took a long time to do that and there was a tremendous amount of attorney manpower Billable hours that there were lost by the Winston strong firm and they did it selflessly They did it because they thought they needed to do the right thing All I can say is the member of the judiciary Thank you because that was very very extraordinary and and I have no idea what the amount of billable hours are and I Can only imagine but I think it is it is huge and truly significant the end of what happened here is that after Mr.. Webb and his team reviewed the case they had several assignments one of which was to Look into the conduct of the state's attorney's office and they returned to the report to Judge Tuman about that their findings about that Another about the Chicago Police Department and their handling the case they did that But what's relevant here of course is that they went to another grand jury and they returned a second indictment and the second indictment Ultimately by random got assigned to this particular court and we came here We've been here for a couple years now. Well the pretrial motions have been resolved a trial by jury was held The defendant was found guilty of five to six counts of felony disorderly conduct class for offenses Our post trial motions have now been resolved the pre-sentence investigation has been completed and we're at the final step of Proceedings on the trial court level of the criminal case and that sentencing Let me talk first about the sentencing range because I think there may be some Misunderstanding at least how the court assesses the sentencing range. This is a class for felony This is the lowest class felony in the state of Illinois Illinois I will note that legislatures throughout the country in Illinois in particular have Constantly cut into judicial discretion and forced us to have mandatory sentencing under different circumstances We have to do this and we have to do that and Try to have some kind of cookie cutter justice, but that does not exist in this case for me I am left unfettered under Illinois law the range of sentence in this case is as follows Mr.. Smollett is looking at a probationary term of up to 30 months He can receive time in the county jail is a condition probation of up to 180 days He can be ordered to perform community service Ordered to participate in behavioral classes Ordered to pay restitution Ordered to pay a fine. He's also subject to a penitentiary sentence of what I find to be one to three years Others talk about what about five counts shouldn't you get to be at least eligible for a 15-year sentence? There are ways to analyze Illinois law and say that in a case where there are five counts that Consecutive sentences might be required or might be at least considered I don't believe that I could ever make the findings that are necessary in the Illinois law and I'm not going to have a long dissertation about it But I don't think those findings would apply. I don't think Illinois law for the facts I had before me would allow for consecutive sentences So as far as I'm concerned the penitentiary sentence should there be one would be one to three years I'm mindful that there's acute public interest in this case We have television cameras that they want to be here and they are here People are watching people seem to care passionately for varieties of reasons about this case and the reasons are are many and let me be clear that the sentence that I put down today and Render down to mr. Smollett is not in any way shape or form to assuage any public sentiment in any any form at all I'm listening to things that were brought to me in court today things people that have participated in the aggravation and mitigation Portions of the presentation today, but this is not for the public the sentence That's going to be rendered today. It's going to be strictly for mr. Smollett It's going to be fashioned for him and when a judge sentences somebody and I've been doing this for quite a while now You have to look at both the crime that was committed and the person that committed it How did the person get here? Who is this person? What is the crime you put them together? You look at the sentencing range and you try to find something that is just and fits and makes sense and that is right And that's what we're going to do. Let me tell you mr. Smollett I know that there is nothing that I will do here today that can come close to the damage you've already done to your own life You've turned your life upside down by your misconduct and shenanigans You've destroyed your life as you knew it and there's nothing that any sentencing judge could do to you that can compare to the damage You've already caused yourself So who is jussie Smollett who are you and how out of all people in the world did you get to be here? Sitting in the courtroom in Chicago at a sentencing hearing convicted of faking hoaxing Racial and homophobic hate crimes how in the world did this happen? Well, there are ironies in this case and the ironies are many and they are profound and I'm talking about the testimony. I heard under oath from mr. Smollett Corroborated in large part by the pre-sentence investigation mrs. Smollett chose to take the witness stand Which of course is his right? He took an oath and he got into witness stand and the first thing he did was to introduce himself to the jury He wanted the jury to know who he was where he came from what he was about And I heard it on the witness stand. I heard it corroborated today by the witnesses that came and testified on his behalf It's no question. Mr. Smollett was born into a mixed-race family His mom is an african african-american woman. His dad was a white jewish man They had there were six siblings and if you can say anything about this family and we're talking about a very very tight knit family a village that that was always in sync with each other that we cared about each other it was completely wholly supportive of each other You know that this family knew about matters about social justice more than anything else That's what the family stood for it is part of the fabric of their existence I know that Jussie Smollett grew up Knowing to be sensitive to matters about racial discrimination any kind of discrimination any kind of social injustice and a matter of fact I'm learning more about it as we're going on in the letters. I've been receiving in the testimony of hurt today He's been doing this all his life. He doesn't just talk the talk. He's walking the walk. He's out there. He's advocating He's involved in the community. He cares deeply about social justice issues And for you now to sit here convicted of hoaxing Hate crimes racial hate crimes and homophobic hate crimes the hypocrisy is just astounding Don't know where to begin. I'll remember one thing that that will always stick in my mind and I've been Involved in so many trials over the years, but something happened in this trial that it was remarkable and it talks about your sensitivity to Issues of social justice. You're on the witness stand You're being cross-examined Your liberty is at stake. It is your criminal trial Mr. Webb is winding through some things on cross-examination and he he's going through some social media Communications and whether it was instagram or chat or or text a little quibbling about that that doesn't matter But mr. Webb found a line that he wanted to confront you with he said didn't you say and he used a word starting with the letter n Meet me at this place at this time and i'm paraphrasing And rather than just answer the question which what does witness is supposed to do and expected to do in their criminal trial You stopped the proceedings you said mr. Webb Out of respect for all the african-american people in this courtroom you should not be using that word And I was I was amazed But it showed and i'm not talking about The pairing and the gamesmanship that may go on between the prosecutor and witness on the stand That's not why i'm i'm telling this Recalling this event But what i'm talking about is how sensitive you were to any kind of slight that anybody if the Wrong words come out of somebody else's mouth you're going to get up and speak up and complain about it And and make sure that they know that uh that they're not behaving the way you're supposed to behave so you know better than anybody else That these are serious matters. They're serious to you. They're clearly serious to you and as your whole family And for you to be here now Convicted these hate crimes It's just astonishing faking hate crimes So why this happened That's a good question. I think that's the question on everybody's mind There's some conjecture you did it for the money Frankly, I do not believe that you did it for the money You were making the evidence showed close to two million dollars a year when this happened I don't think money motivated you at all But the only thing I can find Is that you really Craved the attention and you wanted to get the attention And you were so invested in issues of social justice And you knew that this was a sore spot for everybody in this country You knew this was a country that was slowly trying to heal Past injustices and current injustices and trying to make a better future for each other and it was a hard road And you took some scabs off some healing wounds and you ripped them apart For one reason you wanted to make yourself more famous and for a while it worked Everybody was talking about you the lights are on you you were actually throwing a national pity party for yourself Why would you do such a thing why would you I understand you crave the attention so much, but why would you betray? Something like social justice issues, which you care so much about The only thing I could conclude is that is and I acknowledge there are wonderful Sides to you that they're very giving and charitable and loving sides to you But you have another side of you that is profoundly arrogant and selfish selfish and narcissistic That's the only thing that can be concluded and that bad side of you came out during the course of all these events Let me talk about hate crimes for a minute I've been a criminal judge for many years and I've heard many victims of crimes testify in front of me And any victim of a crime no matter what the crime is they are demoralized by what happens to them It doesn't matter if you're injured unjustifiably if somebody hurts you and it maybe Cripples you or damages you in in some fashion that's going to be Long-standing injuries if your property is stolen Your vehicles are stolen people go into your homes your prop possessions are Stolen people do all kinds of terrible things it is a demoralizing experience and sometimes it's the worst experience that anybody can Can ever go through in their entire life? And then if it turns out that the motivation For the criminal to do something bad to you was because they hate you They hate you because of your race Because your ethnicity Because of your gender your sexual orientation your religion your age your disability If that was the reason for it it is exponentially worse there is nothing worse Than to be a victim of a hate crime It is the worst thing that can happen especially in our country with all our history And all that we're going through now to try to get around some of these issues hate crimes are the absolute worst And I believe that you did damage to real hate crimes to hate crime victims There are people that are actual genuine victims of hate crimes that you did damage to These are people that are have a difficult time coming forward They may be mistrustful They may not want to bring it to the attention of the community or first responders There may be some trepidation I don't know for sure how much damage there was I don't know how this is going to impact other people if they're going to be hesitant to come forward because They're going to think that they're going to be accused of acting like you and doing a stunt like you pulled here I don't know if first responders are going to be more Doubtful and skeptical of people that come forward real victims of hate crime because of what you did here I'm hoping it's not that way Now I'll show one of the ironies in this case And I find this pretty profound I got letters from people that advocate about victims of hate crime their entire lives They devote their lives to this I'm talking in particular Derek Johnson president of the NAACP Reverend Jesse Jackson he's an icon here in Chicago no no introductions necessary They devote their whole lives to addressing issues about social injustice and hate crimes And they are here today asking me to show you mercy and I take that seriously I find it profound I take it seriously and I know that they're in a better position than myself to educate the public about That topic about the damage you've done to real victims of hate crime And I am confident that because of all the attention that you've garnered here on this case that they are going to seize the opportunity And they will educate the public and they'll be talking about this And they'll try to mitigate some of the damage that you've caused to real victims of hate crimes and they're better positioned to do it than I am And I will defer but I will acknowledge that you have done some real damage I want to talk about your premeditation Again, I've been a criminal judge for many years And I know that people end up where you are right now Awaiting sentencing on their criminal trial And how did they get to court? How did that happen? There are some people that wake up in the morning They have no intention of doing anything wrong They're not looking to do anything criminal It's the last thing on their minds But there are crimes of impulse that happen Road rage A barroom fight Bumping into somebody Words are exchanged that somebody finds insulting And sometimes weapons are available And the results can be horrific And they can be permanent And people are sitting here and they're they're wondering themselves How did I get here? I wasn't looking for trouble But trouble just seemed to find them And crimes and impuls And when I'm saying that I have to Put the person and the crime together and try to Mix them and understand Who it is that committed this crime Within the sentencing range And that's part of my job to do I consider how the person got here So but this is not a crime of impulse There are also crimes of opportunity Walking down the street and somebody Oh somebody they left The keys in the car with the motor running And they take the car Or they're in the department store And they see someone put the credit card on this side And they go to Adjust their baggage on the other side And grab the credit card Those are crimes of opportunity They didn't wake up Thinking they're going to commit a crime But something just looked too tempting to them They use very bad judgment And then they get in trouble They get caught and here they are But then there are crimes of premeditation Mr. Smollett That's what you are all about here Crime of premeditation You did wake up in the morning Thinking you were going to do something bad And something wrong And I know And I know more today about this Than I ever did before That there are some wonderful things about you And I know how people They cherish you And they cherish your relationships And they cherish the good works that you've done And they love you sincerely and deeply And they're not faking They're not lying when they talk to me about Their feelings about you And the good things that you've done But you had that dark side And this is what happened here You premedited this case to an extreme That's amazing You wrote a script The script involved words You're going to Encounter me on the street Yell out empire N word F word You're going to hit me You're going to beat me up You're going to put bleach on me You're going to put a noose around my neck It's a script that you wrote Now it's not a good script Especially for Streeterville in Chicago It's questionable But it's a script that you wrote You picked out the actors You chose the Ocean Darrow brothers And why did you do that? Because you knew them You trusted them They idolized you You're an established actor In a serious television production of Empire They were kind of hangers on there They're trying to get jobs as extras Maybe a little speaking part here and there But you were mentoring them You were helping them They wanted your advice They would do anything for you They thought you were You were one of the greatest people in the world to know And that you could help them in their careers They're in great shape They gave you a little advice about diet and exercise But they idolized you And they would have done anything for you And you chose them because You knew that you could trust them That they were loyal to you You paid them in advance by check Not necessarily a good idea But it was your idea It was part of the plan That you would pay them in advance And the check was out there The check was shown into evidence That was part of your premeditation You chose a date You chose a time You chose a location You had props procured You gave them a hundred dollar bill And had them get the supplies What are the supplies in this case? Get masks Nobody should see you We're going to say that you're white But obviously the Ocean Darrow brothers are not white We're going to cover your faces in masks We're going to have a red hat Because that's going to indicate MAGA country We're going to get a rope that we're going to use as a noose We're going to procure some bleach You're going to have the supplies Then you had all that together And then you did rehearsals You picked them up and you did drive-bys You drove around and around the block You picked them up in Lakeview in their neighborhood And some distance away You went to Streeterville where you were living And you showed them You're going here You're going there And you're going over the lines You're going over the script with them So they would memorize the script You're indicating which brother You're the one that's going to hit me You're the one that's going to put the noose around my neck And pour the bleach on me This was planned This was premeditated It's premeditated the extreme And I find that your extreme premeditation in this case Is an aggravating factor today Let's talk about the incident itself It's all set up The Ocean Darrow brothers are on board Your plane is running late Now you had a chance right then and there To think, okay, I'm really late I'm four hours late This can't go down It's freezing in Chicago We're on the verge of a polar vortex You might have just thought about it and said You know, maybe it's not in the cards Maybe the karma is wrong I shouldn't be doing this But no, no, no You double down You start communicating with the brothers through social media Now whether it was by texts or chats or Instagram Public or private One way or another You kept in touch with them And there was some quibbling about the The specifics about how you kept in touch with them But they knew what time you were coming in And now the time is pushed back to two o'clock in the morning In the freezing cold weather It's double digits below zero at two o'clock in the morning You have to have a reason to be out on the street And the reason you chose is you Come up with the story that you needed to To get some eggs at Walgreens at two o'clock in the morning If not that you're going to go to subway and get a sandwich and a salad And get something to eat at two o'clock in the morning in the freezing cold You did one more thing You got the Osh and Darrell brothers Now they're on board with you You're using them as your patsies You have Your friend you get your friend Brandon on the phone And here's a man Professional man that's trying to help you in your career You're not sure what town he's in If he's in Australia or not But you get him on the phone And he's going to be your patsy also Because he's going to listen And be around on the phone To hear that you're being attacked by somebody Now he doesn't know what's going on That's really not an attack But he's going to be able to corroborate your story So you're getting that together You got Brandon on the phone You're out on the street Ostensibly to get some subway You get some subway And you're walking to where this is supposed to take place Now the Osh and Darrell brothers They're getting ready too And they're doing this because you wanted them to do it on the sneak No cell phones involved Make sure nobody sees you get there And what they think is some kind of clever way of getting there They have an Uber pick them up from their home in Lakeview They take the Uber to Old Town It's a different neighborhood They get out of the Uber and they get into a cab Now the cab is supposed to go to Streeterville But not to the scene where this is supposed to happen A few blocks away So nobody actually sees them get off Get out of the cab And this works out the way you want it to work out So they get there a little early They're walking around They're sitting on a bench for a minute But at two o'clock The time that you said this is supposed to happen At the place you said it was supposed to happen At the moment you said it was supposed to happen They appear So you're talking to Brandon on the phone You have your subway in hand And they follow the script Hey Empire Word with the letter N Word with the letter F There's a scuffle They pour bleach on you Brandon's listening to this They attempt to put a noose around your neck During the scuffling You're getting a little abrasion and scrape on your face A car goes by And the brothers take off They leave They never did get the noose around your neck So what do you do? You gather your belongings You get the cell phone You're talking to Brandon Hey, did you get jumped? Yeah, I got jumped I got mugged Did you hear what happened? Trying to make sure that he heard the words that were spoken You grab your food And you took the noose that they never did get around your neck And you put it around your own neck I repeat You put the noose around your own neck You go home Video footage shows That when you walk into your residence You have this noose Dangling loosely around your neck You go into your apartment The police are called The police arrive The first officer on the scene is Chicago police officer Mohammed Baig In full uniform The first responder of the first responders His body cam is on He sees you And now he sees that that noose is around your neck But it's not the way that you walked into the house Now the noose is up at your throat You've maneuvered the noose And you've made it look worse than it was This is part of your plan Officer Baig gets a simple question What happened? And then you start to lie And you haven't stopped lying ever since You've been lying and lying and lying about this case And that's why you're here today You want to fake an incident on the street Try to get some attention at work Try to have somebody else feel sorry for you That would never have got you here The problem was you lied to the police And you caused all kinds of consternation You caused a major investigation to take place Which got many people involved And caused great stress throughout the city And throughout the entire community here And that's the problem That's why you're here now Those were the crimes you're convicted of Not the shenanigans out there But the lying about it Making it up And that's why we're here now You repeated your lies at the hospital Six counts were put together The jury found you guilty of five of them One was a little bit different than the others And I understand that Let me say From my vantage point And I was obviously here at every stage of this trial I thought the jury's verdict was accurate Correct Wholly corroborated But what could only be described as Overwhelming evidence of guilt against you For lying That's the crime you're here for Lying to the police Well Officer Bay took this very seriously He said that's a horrible thing that happened And he started the process of Police investigation Detectives got involved You ended up at the hospital All things were starting to happen And this word got out And you're not just any person You have a little bit of celebrity about you You were known in some circles As a very competent actor A really good actor In a very serious television production called Empire And people knew about this And because you're a celebrity And because you've been so active in all these social justice causes And this is what is so unbelievable about this case That you of all people are here convicted of hoaxing hate crimes You who know better Who are out there in the world Trying to be something for the good in social justice causes That you ended up here right now like this It's crazy But you know people in high places Elected public officials They reacted You knew mainstream journalists They reacted You became the first page Your front page news You're talked about in the halls of congress People are talking about making laws to prevent what happened to you to happen to anybody else People on mainstream media are decrying what happened What kind of country is this? How could they do this to Jussie? We know Jussie He's such a gentle guy He's the guy that was described to me by all the family and friends that I heard from today And I believe that Jussie exists But you use them as your patsies too They were giving you the national pity party you wanted They're putting you on the front page All the attention is on you People talk about social injustice Your name was coming up first Which is exactly what you wanted But you use them If anything people in those positions Elected public officials Mainstream journalists Their credibility is everything to them And you didn't care that you might be damaging it You did damage to them Because again there's a side of you that has this arrogance and selfishness and narcissism That's just disgraceful You planned work the course until it didn't We're in Chicago You lived here for five years Working on the on the empire show And you have to know As well as anybody that lives in Chicago The Chicagoans they love their city They're fiercely loyal to the city And believe me Chicagoans know we don't all agree with each other on a lot There are all kinds of disagreements on what our city should be What the vision should be for the future There's even disagreements about what our past was like But despite all the disagreements and all the things that are not Right with Chicago It's sweet home to Chicago To the Chicagoans Chicagoans are fiercely loyal to their city But Chicagoans have one thing in common That they agree on That there's no misunderstandings Everybody's on the same page And that page is crime is a problem It is a major problem Nobody disagrees And we know that police resources They are valuable They're limited [00:27:28] Speaker ?: They're limited [00:27:28] Speaker 1: Detective resources are precious And they cannot, cannot be squandered And what you did Because you were selfishly Arrogantly And narcissistically Bringing attention to yourself It's the only reason you could have been Doing such a crazy thing that you did Was you took away a lot of resources From other places From other real victims of real crimes You used up the police Resources for your own benefit And that's a big problem here What you did is you created What we call around here A heater What's a heater A heater A heater is a case That when it's reported to the public The public conscious is shocked Shocked to such an extreme That the public is demanding That the police solve this crime here Right now Right here Right now Everything else has to take second place The heater has to be addressed And you created a heater And boy did they put on an investigation And I know that I've been listening to Chicago police officers And listening about police investigations For many years It's certainly not a perfect police department It's perhaps unfairly maligned In some respects as well I'll match the homicide detectives here Against any in the country For their competence and thoroughness Not a question about that But what they did in this case Is extraordinary I have never seen Even in some murder cases The amount of police work That went into this investigation You did exactly What you didn't want to happen They put so many police resources into this When I say what you didn't want to happen Is you never wanted this case solved You thought that Somehow you'd be able to skate by And nobody would ever Know what really happened here And you're going to walk away from this And it didn't go down like that at all Of course So they solved the case And what happened Turns out that you're not a victim of a hate crime You're not a victim of a racial hate crime You're not a victim of a homophobic hate crime You're just a charlatan Pretending to be a victim of a hate crime And that's shameful Especially from the family you got brought up with With your family values It's so sad The damage you've done to yourself Is way beyond anything else that can happen to you From me Or any other judge that would be sentencing you in this criminal case You are now a permanently convicted felon Your family who loves you and supports you I don't even want to use the word forgive Because forgiveness isn't even necessary They're with you so much They're so tight-knit But you have to live with the fact That you really put them through a ringer You've embarrassed your valuable friends In high places The elected public officials People in the media You've embarrassed them You have to live with that I don't know if those relationships Can be repaired You've become toxic in your own workplace Your career future is uncertain at very best It was really on a rocket ship to success And now you've turned yourself into riches to rags And it's so unfortunate Your very name has become an adverb for lying And I cannot imagine what could be worse than that People talk about situations where somebody's lying And trying to manipulate and maneuver a story And your name comes up It's oh pulling a jussie something like that That's awful You're the butt of jokes Comedians Mainstream talk show hosts They make jokes about you They do sketches about you I can't imagine anything worse than that Now this is all self-inflicted These are things you did to yourself This is self-damage Well some people may think That what you did is funny And that there's some room for humor or jokes about it But I assure you this court does not I don't think there is anything funny at all About hate Hoaxing and faking racial hate crimes Hoaxing or faking homophobic hate crimes I think that is disgraceful There is nothing funny about it There's no humor in what you did whatsoever All because you're selfish arrogant narcissistic At least you have that side in you That came out through this case And you kept doubling down and doubling down and doubling down It's not funny It's not funny at all And I'm your sentencing judge And I don't find it funny So where are we at? We're at the end You're convicted of a class four felony It's presumptively probationable But we have some real serious aggravating factors here Your premeditation which I've described The pain you've caused to real victims of hate crimes Which I've described The damage you've done to the city of chicago I've hurt It's been talked about I'm mindful of the city's request for restitution And if I'm going to fashion that Consider that request I have to fashion the sentence accordingly And above all The capper of all cappers Your performance on the witness stand This could only be described As pure perjury You got on the witness stand You didn't have to You did You certainly have a right to But you committed Hour upon hour Upon hour Of pure perjury And I find all those to be Ample factors If this court were to decide That the things you did That any kind of probationary sentence Would deprecate the seriousness of the offense And you need to go to the penitentiary The record is clear And it would support it But I'm looking at everything in its totality And I agree It's told to me today You can't judge everybody By one bad thing they've done in their life I don't know if it's the only bad thing But it's the only bad thing That I'm concerned about now And that you do have Quite a record Of real community service And quite a record of attaching with people There is a lot of mitigation in this case as well And I'm mindful of the pleas of mercy Particularly from people That are in the arena Of dealing with social justice issues That are fighting Seriously fighting Not playing around Not doing games like you are doing But seriously fighting for Matters involving hate crimes Of all sorts And they're asking you for mercy as well So I'm trying to consider Who you are as a person How you got here How somehow you strayed away From your family values You let that dark Narcissistic selfish And arrogant side come out And you persisted with it For years on this case I'm fashioning the following sentence And here's your sentence I'm sentencing you to 30 months felony probation And the probation is going to be to this court You're going to be allowed to travel Wherever you want You do not have to live In the state of Illinois You can report by phone I know that if you're going to Try to make a living And do some of the things you do You may have to go to Other places New York and Los Angeles You can do those things You will pay restitution To the city of Chicago In the amount of 120,106 dollars You are fined 25,000 dollars Which is the maximum fine And you will spend The first 150 days of your sentence In the Cook County Jail And that will start today Right here Right now Mr. Smollett