(AllHipHop News) Jussie Smollett was back in court in Chicago, Illinois today (February 24th) on renewed felony charges for allegedly staging a hate crime.
The “Empire” actor was indicted for a second time on February 11th on six counts of felony disorderly conduct.
A special prosecutor assigned to reinvestigate the case decided it was “in the interest of justice” to bring the renewed charges against him.
Today, Jussie stood before Judge James Linn, who ordered Jussie to be released on a $20,000 bond.
He’s been accused of paying two brothers, Abel and Ola Osundairo to stage the attack.
Jussie was hit with 16 counts of felony disorderly conduct for making false statements to the Chicago Police Department, but charges against him were dropped with little explanation by the Cook County State’s Attorney office that March.
However, of the new indictment, officials from the City of Chicago recently said: “the City stands by our original complaint seeking to recover costs for Mr. Smollett’s false statements.”
Smollett’s lawyers have long proclaimed his innocence, and when the star was first charged, he vowed to go to trial and refused to consider a plea deal.
If convicted, he faces one to three years in prison, mandatory community service and a $25,000 fine.
Jussie is due back in court on March 18th.