© JM11/Joseph Marzullo/WENN/NewscomJussie Smollett
Smollett, 36, gave police the wrong name - Jake, the name of his brother - after being stopped in 2007, according to a complaint filed by the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.
The actor pleaded no contest to three misdemeanor charges in that incident: driving with a blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit, driving without a license and lying to the cop.
Under the deal, prosecutors dropped four related charges, including a charge he signed a written promise to appear using "Jake Smollet."
He was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to attend an alcohol education class.
News of Smollett's past legal history emerged as Chicago Police pursued leads the actor may have orchestrated a Jan. 29 attack on himself with the help of two brothers questioned last week.
Smollett, 36, told police he was jumped on a street outside his Chicago apartment while returning from a Subway restaurant. He claimed two masked men kicked and punched him, placed a rope around his neck, spewed racist and homophobic slurs and yelled, "This is MAGA country" - an apparent reference to President Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."
The brothers implicated in the attack - identified as Ola and Abel Osundairo - reportedly told police Smollett paid them to carry out the attack.
Smollett's legal team has denied the actor played any role in a hoax.
"As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with," his lawyers Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson said in a statement Saturday.
"He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying."
The brothers were about to testify before a grand jury Tuesday before Smollett's attorneys called the Cook County State's Attorney's office in Chicago and said they had possible new evidence, causing the testimony to be postponed, CBS Chicago reported.
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx recused herself from the case Tuesday.
"Out of an abundance of caution, the decision to recuse herself was made to address potential questions of impartiality based upon familiarity with potential witnesses in the case," a spokeswoman for Foxx said.
Reader Comments
However, past crimes of DECEPTION, even second degree misdemeanors ARE admissible.
He's a hopelessly amateur psychopath; who probably just prevented (hopefully) himself from rising higher.
I do thank him for helping to point out that a huge percentage, perhaps 'most' of criminally filed charges of 'hate crimes' are like this, ultimately. (It's a personal version of a False Flag.)
R.C.