Jussie Smollett’s attorney Nenye Uche is accused of contacting two key witnesses of the case the actor is defending against the Chicago police. The actor was accused by the Chicago police of lying to them during an interrogation.
During the hearing on Tuesday, Judge James Linn said that he needs to determine if Nenye Uche talked to Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundario in the days after Smollett reported that two masked men attacked him in downtown Chicago. The two witnesses were determined as crucial to the case because of the fact that they told the authorities Jussie Smollett paid a Black and an openly gay man from the “Empire” to orchestrate the racist and homophobic attack in January 2019.
Gloria Rodriguez, the attorney who is representing the brothers, and Special Prosecutor Dan Webb argued before the court that Nenye Uche should be kicked off the case because he spoke to the key witnesses and tried gathering confidential information from the brothers when they thought he might represent them.
“You cannot have the person who had a confidential conversation with you now cross-examining you,” Webb said. It is a conflict of interest to attack the credibility of the brothers using information gathered from them in what they believed were confidential conversations with an attorney who they thought was going to represent them. I don’t know who was there, where she was calling from and who was there,” he told the judge.
“Empire” outcasts Jussie Smollett
May 2, 2019
Fox Entertainment announced that Jussie Smollett will not return to “Empire” amidst allegations by Chicago officials that the actor faked a racially motivated attack for unnecessary attention earlier in February this year.
In a statement released by the studio Tuesday, it said “there are no plans for Smollett’s character of Jamal to return to ‘Empire.’” No particular reason was cited in the statement. So we wouldn’t catch Jamal in the upcoming sixth season, that Fox greenlighted earlier on Tuesday.
Chicago police accused the 36-year-old actor of staging a racist homophobic attack on himself late in January were two masked men beat him and dumped bleach on him while tying a rope around his neck. Smollett maintained his innocence throughout the investigation and charges against him were dropped.
But later, suspicion arose when Smollett denied cooperating with the investigation by refraining to share his Cellphone. Police claimed that Smollett had paid up the two masked men, who happened to be brothers to pull off the publicity stunt.
Following this drama, Chicago has slammed Jussie Smollett with 3 times the money and resources it spent in the investigation. Even the brothers who were hired to stage this incident have filed a defamation suit on Smollett.
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