Jury selection began Monday in the criminal trial of Jussie Smollett, a black actor who claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic assault in Chicago only to have authorities allege he fabricated the event.
Smollett claimed that in late January 2019, two men wearing ski masks assaulted him while he was walking home from a Subway restaurant. The men started yelling racist, anti-gay, pro-Donald Trump comments at him before turning violent, he claimed. Smollett said the men beat him and tied a noose around his neck.
Smollett's manager called the police, and officers rushed to his apartment to find Smollett with the rope still tied around his neck.
"I just wanted y'all to see it," he told them.
JUSSIE SMOLLETT CRIMINAL TRIAL SET TO BEGIN MONDAY
The incident garnered international headlines and put intense pressure on the Chicago Police Department to find the culprits. But then, it began to unravel.
Two siblings who worked with Smollett eventually came forward and said Smollett paid them $3,500 to stage the attack, though Smollett has denied it.
The incident stayed in the media spotlight for months and spiraled into rumors, competing culture-war flashpoints, lawsuits, a special prosecutor's investigation, and a political crisis for Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx.
Cook County prosecutors initially charged Smollett with disorderly conduct, then abruptly dropped the case a month later with little to no explanation.
After intense public outcry, a judge appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the Smollett matter. Attorney Dan Webb and his team convened a special grand jury that brought up Smollett on the same charges.
The former Empire actor is accused of lying to the police and has been charged with felony disorderly conduct. The crime carries a sentence of up to three years in prison, but legal analysts say it's unlikely Smollett will do any time behind bars if convicted. Instead, if he is found guilty, he will likely be placed on probation and given community service.
The brothers at the heart of the prosecution's case, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, are expected to take the stand and testify that they carried out a bizarre plot orchestrated by Smollett.
Jurors are also likely to see surveillance video from more than four dozen cameras that police reviewed to trace the Osundairos' movements before and after the reported attack, as well as a video showing them buying a red hat, ski masks, and gloves from a beauty supply shop.
While Smollett's defense team has played its cards close to its chest, it could hone in on a woman who lived in the area and told police she saw a white man with "reddish brown hair" who appeared to be waiting for someone that night. She said that when the man turned away from her, she "could see hanging out from underneath his jacket what appeared to be a rope."
Her comments back up Smollett's claims that his attackers draped a noose around his neck. If the woman testifies that the man she saw was white, it would lend credibility to Smollett's description that one of his attackers was white.
The Osundairos are black and from Nigeria.
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The defense is also expected to argue that the brothers were working with at least one other person and that they carried out the attack and then framed Smollett to avoid being criminally charged themselves.
The trial is expected to last one week.