CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Jussie Smollett took the witness stand Monday, hoping to convince a jury that he was an innocent victim of a hate crime attack and not the mastermind of a hoax.
The former “Empire” actor began to testify a little after noon, and early questioning by defense attorney Nenye Uche focused on Smollett’s childhood and family background, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. He said he wasn’t always close to his father until later in life, but he called his mother “my favorite human in the world.”
Smollett also talked about being a “working child actor,” doing commercials in New York, moving to Los Angeles and landing a role in “The Mighty Ducks.”
“I played a duck,” Smollett said.
During Smollett’s highly anticipated testimony, court officials left the doors to the courtroom open so additional reporters and observers could try to watch and listen. Smollett’s testimony was hard to hear from the hallway though, and most people there leaned an ear toward the courtroom.
Smollett’s time on the stand will mark his first extensive public remarks on the case against him since the former “Empire” actor read a statement as he left the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in March 2019. That followed a hearing at which the Cook County state’s attorney dropped all charges just weeks after he was indicted.
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Some three years ago, Smollett proclaimed his innocence to a throng of reporters, saying, “I have been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one. … I would not be my mother’s son if I was capable of one drop of what I’d been accused of.”
Smollett’s testimony would seem essential to proving the defense theory of the case as the actor stands trial on a second indictment brought by a special grand jury after a yearlong investigation of the attack and State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office.
Smollett’s lawyers have cast the actor as an unwitting victim, betrayed by his onetime friend-turned-star prosecution witness Abimbola Osundairo and Osundairo’s older brother, Olabinjo.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2021. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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