Radar Online
Just one day after Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail, it's been revealed that he will be held in protective custody during his time behind bars, TMZ reported on Friday, March 11.
According to documents obtained by the outlet, Judge James Linn said the actor and his team requested the protection. “Protective custody is a type of imprisonment to protect a person from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners,” the definition reads.
The Hollywood star was sentenced to 30 months' probation, and he will spend 150 days in Cook County Jail. In December 2021, Smollett was found guilty of lying to the police about a hate crime, which was ultimately determined to be a hoax.
In January 2019, Smollett claimed that he was part of a racist and homophobic hate crime by two brothers in Chicago. He was later found guilty on five counts of felony disorderly conduct for lying to the police, and he was also charged with a sixth count of felony disorderly conduct for lying to a detective in the weeks following the “attack.”
The judge believes that Smollett was craving attention when he began his whole web of lies.
“You wanted to make yourself more famous, and, for a while, it worked,” Linn said at the end of the hearing. “You were throwing a national pity party for yourself.”
At first, Smollett wasn't going to make a statement to the court, but once he heard he would be spending time in jail, he shouted in the courtroom, “I am NOT suicidal … I am innocent … if anything happens to me when I go in there I did not do it to myself.”
“If I did this, then it means that I stuck my fist in the fears of Black Americans in this country for over 400 years and the fears of the LGBT community,” Smollett replied. “Your Honor, I respect you and I respect the jury but I did not do this. And I am not suicidal. And if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself. And you must all know that.”
