From Getty Images: “Attorney Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez with Abimbola and Ola Osundairo (R) arrive at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on February 24, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois.”
There’s been another complication in the Jussie Smollett case. Brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo will no longer cooperate with the Chicago Police Department because cops have not returned items investigators had seized.
“I hope this effort from your office and your clients was worth it because my clients are advising that whether they receive their items or not, they will no longer be cooperating with the prosecution of Mr. Smollett,” attorney Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez wrote to a police department lawyer, according to The Chicago Tribune. She called the return process a “paperwork nightmare.”
She told the newspaper over the phone that the brothers ended their relationship with police out of feeling disrespected and frustrated with getting their possessions back.
They “were, like ‘Gloria, we’ve had it, we’ve been so patient,” she said. “Everything we’ve provided the office is without subpoena … Instagram messages, social media posts, phone records, whatever it is we’ve needed, and wanted, they’ve produced. That ends now. We’ve obviously been too accessible for them.”
The Osundairo brothers aren’t walking back their claims Smollett staged the alleged attack against him, but they’re at odds with the police department over guns, ammunition, and magazines that officers initially seized from their home back when they were suspects.
The police department told Law&Crime that they’ll turn over the items once a judge grants a motion from the attorney.
“CPD is in possession of the proceeds and should the court grant the motion for property turnover, we will turn over the materials consistent with the court order,” the department said in an email.
Smollett, a Black and gay actor best known for his work on the show Empire, claimed he was the victim of a homophobic, racist attack in Chicago. Police at first addressed it as a legitimate claim but later said that the performer staged the assault with the help of the Osundairo brothers, who confessed. Officers claimed the whole thing was a publicity stunt because the actor was dissatisfied with his pay on the series.
The alleged co-conspirators turned into witnesses. The brothers even sued Smollett’s attorneys for defamation, and they said that Smollett “directed every aspect of the attack.”
The actor denies the allegations against him. Charges against Smollett were suddenly dropped in March 2019, but a special prosecutor later revived the case.
[Image via Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images]
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