March 15, 2022 9:28PM ET
Jussie Smollett Moved to New Cell Amid Push for Emergency Release
Disturbing call allegedly received by Smollett’s sibling, leading to the emergency release request, appears to invoke the 1997 police assault on Abner Louima by a disgraced NYPD officer in Brooklyn
Nancy Dillon
UPDATE (3/15): Jussie Smollett has been moved to a new jail cell with a standard bed instead of one designed for restraining mental health patients, but his brother says he’s still worried.
“At this point, our biggest priority is getting our brother out of jail. He’s a strong individual, but it’s not right. It’s traumatic. It’s a mental marathon. We want to get him out,” brother Jocqui Smollett tells Rolling Stone on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Cook County sheriff’s officials confirmed Jussie Smollett had been relocated to the new cell, saying it was because medical personnel needed his prior cell for someone else. “Mr. Smollett was never restrained to a bed or anything else in the cell. The bed was never equipped with restraints,” the department said in a statement.
The safety and security of all detained individuals, including Mr. Smollett, is the Sheriff’s Office’s highest priority,” the statement said.
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Originally published 3/14
Jussie Smollett’s lawyers and family are demanding an emergency suspension of the actor’s five-month jail sentence, saying “vicious threats” including a highly disturbing anonymous phone call raise serious concerns about his safety behind bars.
One of Smollett’s siblings received the alarming call Friday morning on the number that was given as his emergency jail contact when he was taken into custody Thursday night following sentencing for his hate hoax conviction, a Smollett spokeswoman says.
“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’s voice says in video of the call shared by Smollett’s team on Monday.
The threat appears to recall the horrific 1997 police assault on Abner Louima in Brooklyn, in which Louima was sodomized with a broken broomstick in the bathroom of the 70th precinct by Justin Volpe, the disgraced NYPD Officer now serving 30 years for the attack.
more
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/jussie-smollett-emergency-release-filing-1321102/
