Jussie Smollett’s lawyers have demanded that the disgraced actor be sprung from jail, claiming he faces “dangerous threats” including a phone call that alluded to the notorious case of a sodomized New York City man.
Smollett’s legal team claimed in a new filing that argued for his release that the actor has received “vicious threats” on social media, Rolling Stone reported.
The hate on social media “no doubt reflects the hatred and wish for physical harm toward Smollett which he may experience during incarceration,” his lawyers argued.
One of Smollett’s siblings also received the disturbing call Friday on the number that had been provided as the hate-crime faker’s emergency contact, a rep for the actor told the magazine.
“I hope what they do to that guy in jail — here’s what they’re going to do, right. They’re going to take a broom handle, and take that little [expletive], shove it in there, and he’s gonna go, ‘[shrieking sound],’” a man was heard saying in video of the call shared by the actor’s team.
The chilling threat apparently referred to the 1997 case of Abner Louima, who was brutally assaulted by an NYPD cop who used a broomstick to sodomize the Haitian immigrant, whose rectum and bladder were perforated.
Justin Volpe, the disgraced former cop, was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison in 1999 for the shocking attack inside the 70th Precinct stationhouse in Brooklyn.
Smollett, 39, was found guilty on five counts of felony disorderly conduct after an eight-day trial stemming from a staged 2019 hate crime.
He was sentenced to five months in a Chicago jail, where he is being held in the psych ward due to what his brother Jocqui Smollett claims was a paperwork snafu.
His attorneys added that being in “protective custody” is akin to “solitary confinement,” which could lead to “extraordinary damage on his mental health.”
They also claimed that their client has a “compromised immune system,” so his “potential exposure” to COVID-19 behind bars also raises a “serious health risk,” Rolling Stone reported.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that Smollett has been kept in housing often used for inmates with mental health needs, adding that “it would be inaccurate and irresponsible to make any assumption about his mental or medical condition based on where he is currently housed,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
Smollett was not on suicide watch, officials told the paper.
Last week, Smollett ranted that he wasn’t suicidal after he was given the jail sentence.