Who is James Linn? Judge says Jussie Smollett FAKED attack to 'make himself famous'
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Jussie Smollett has been sentenced to 150 days behind bars and 30 months of probation after being found guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct for lying to police about the fake hate crime. On March 10, Thursday, the actor was also asked to pay $120,106 restitution to the city of Chicago and a $25,000 fine as part of the sentencing by Cook County Judge James Linn.
Before announcing his verdict, Linn criticized Smollett and said, “You turned your life upside down by your misconduct and shenanigans. There's nothing that any sentencing judge can do to you that would compare to the damage you've already caused yourself.” The judge also mentioned the former ‘Empire’ actor’s family, who “stood for social justice,” before stating Smollett “grew up knowing to be sensitive to matters about racial discrimination, any kind of discrimination, any kind of social injustice.”
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Linn then noted, “For you to now sit here, convicted of hoaxing hate crimes, racial hate crimes and homophonic hate crimes, the hypocrisy is just astounding,” as he went on to explain why Smollett faked the attack against himself in January 2019. He added, “You knew this was a country that was slowly trying to heal past injustices and current injustices and trying to make a better future for each other. ...And it was a hard road...You took some scabs off some healing wounds, and you ripped them apart for one reason - you wanted to make yourself more famous, and for a while it worked.”
Linn admitted that Smollett has a good, loving side but also stated, “...That bad side of you came out during the course of all these events.” The 39-year-old singer looked emotional after being sentenced as he continued to insist on his innocence. He added, “If I did this and it means that I stuck my fist in the fears of black Americans in this country for over 400 years and the fingers of the LGBTQ community.”
Who was the judge in Jussie Smollett's sentencing?
James Linn was the judge who gave his final ruling in Smollett’s trial. Once reportedly a veteran, the Cook County judge, had conducted “more bench trials for sex cases than any judge in Cook County.” However, in 2011, he attracted a lot of controversy after reversing a jury’s verdict in the sexual assault case of three sisters by a man named Joseph Fultz and convicting him of a far less serious sex charge.
According to a report by Injustice Watch, Fultz was given only 18 years in jail, “a far cry from the mandatory life sentence he faced if the jury’s decision had stood.” The report noted, “For the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, the about-face marked the final straw following a series of what prosecutors viewed as unfavorable decisions by Linn on sex cases, according to internal office emails and interviews with several former prosecutors.”
And as a result, “In less than two years following his controversial handling of Fultz’s case, Linn was bounced from at least 25 sex cases using SOJs, about four times more than the next closest judge, according to an unprecedented analysis of criminal court data,” the report added.
It has been said that Linn has not overseen a sex case since November 2013. Also recently, one of the victims of the 2011 case said of the judge that he “didn’t really think about the emotional damages that (Fultz) left on me or my sisters or the full nature of how sick he was.” She added, “And it’s not because of the case. It’s because most of the time people don’t care about people that look like me or that have my kind of background. That’s why so many people take (the) law into their own hands.”