ATLANTA — The choose overseeing the criminal racketeering case against Young Thug recessed the trial indefinitely till an outdoor choose can overview motions from the Atlanta rapper and others looking for to recuse the choose from the case amid allegations that he and prosecutors held an improper assembly with a key witness.
Fulton County Superior Courtroom Choose Ural Glanville made the shock announcement as attorneys gathered for what had been scheduled to be a personal listening to to overview the transcript of a June 10 assembly between the choose, prosecutors and Kenneth Copeland, a Younger Thug affiliate and star witness within the gang conspiracy case.
A number of protection attorneys have sought to take away Glanville from overseeing the case, calling his assembly with a sworn witness “improper” and accusing the choose and prosecutors of pressuring a key witness to testify — motions that Glanville had denied.
Final month, Brian Metal, Younger Thug’s lead legal professional, was found in criminal contempt and ordered to serve 20 weekend days in jail after he questioned Glanville concerning the assembly and refused to disclose who informed him about it — a sentence the Georgia Supreme Court later stayed as Metal appeals.
On Monday, Glanville abruptly made the listening to public and introduced from the bench that he deliberate to launch the complete transcript of the assembly with Copeland “so everybody can have an opportunity to have a look at it.” He then reversed himself, asserting that he would refer recusal motions to a different choose to find out whether or not he ought to stay on the case.
“We’ll be in recess till that point,” Glanville declared.
The announcement appeared to catch many unexpectedly, together with prosecutors who instantly raised considerations concerning the influence on the jury in what’s already the longest prison trial in Georgia historical past at 18 months and counting. Jurors haven’t heard testimony within the case since June 17 amid disputes over Copeland’s testimony and proof points.
“Do now we have a timeline of when the movement to recuse may be heard?” requested Simone Hylton, a deputy Fulton County district legal professional and key prosecutor on the case.
“I don’t know,” Glanville replied. “I don’t have something to do with that.”
The dramatic developments got here because the racketeering trial in opposition to Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, has dragged on at a glacial tempo, marred by jury and witness issues and different day by day turmoil that has engulfed the high-profile prosecution led by Fulton County District Lawyer Fani T. Willis (D).
The Younger Thug prosecution is one among two high-profile prison racketeering circumstances being led by Willis’s workplace. Final summer time, the veteran prosecutor introduced charges against former president Donald Trump and greater than a dozen of his associates, alleging that they criminally conspired to try to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.
That case is now at a standstill, as Trump and others enchantment a choose’s choice to permit Willis to proceed prosecuting the case amid complaints that she had an improper romantic relationship with the previous lead prosecutor within the case.
Younger Thug and 27 different associates had been charged in Could 2022 as a part of a sweeping grand jury indictment that alleged that the rapper and his associates had been members of a violent prison avenue gang in Atlanta.
Prosecutors have alleged that Younger Thug was head of the gang, often called YSL, or Younger Slime Life, and have charged him with prison racketeering and gang prices whereas others had been charged with different violent crimes, together with homicide and tried armed theft.
Younger Thug’s attorneys have countered by claiming YSL is merely a file label and have attacked prosecutors for introducing Young Thug’s lyrics as proof at trial, arguing that his rhymes had been merely creative expression, not literal recounting of prison acts.
Jury choice within the case started in January 2023 and took 10 months. Opening statements befell in late November — although proceedings had been virtually instantly halted after one among Younger Thug’s co-defendants was stabbed in jail and hospitalized. Proceedings resumed in January however have been marred by fixed delays, together with frequent bickering between the attorneys and the choose.
Monday marked the one centesimal day of proceedings since opening statements, although jurors have heard testimony for roughly solely half of these days. Prosecutors aren’t but midway by means of their projected witness listing of greater than 200 individuals.
Attorneys within the case have recommended the trial may final effectively into 2025 or past — although that was earlier than the newest turmoil, which has sparked questions on the way forward for the proceedings and whether or not Glanville will keep management of the case.
Protection attorneys have repeatedly accused Glanville of bias, claims which have solely intensified in current weeks. In a June 17 movement, Metal accused Glanville of being an unofficial member of the prosecution crew looking for to convict his shopper.
On the identical time, an legal professional for an additional co-defendant filed an emergency petition with the Georgia Supreme Courtroom to halt the case and think about whether or not Glanville ought to recuse — a request the excessive court docket declined to take up on procedural grounds as a result of it wasn’t heard by a decrease court docket first.
“Glanville’s actions offend public confidence within the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary,” Doug Weinstein, an legal professional for the rapper Yak Gotti, whose actual identify is Deamonte Kendrick, wrote within the movement. “An look of impropriety and bias hangs over the current trial resulting from Glanville’s failure to observe the legislation.”
Although it declined to listen to the movement, the Georgia Supreme Courtroom notably stated in its ruling that if Weinstein had been to file his movement in Fulton County Superior Courtroom that Glanville “could be disqualified from presiding over the matter” and “a unique choose would think about.”
Weinstein refiled his petition late Friday in Fulton County, which was assigned to a different choose.
It’s unclear if that’s what prompted the occasions Monday. From the bench, Glanville learn from what he stated could be a written order, describing a timeline of occasions that led to the personal assembly with Copeland. He cited quite a few items of case legislation as he argued he didn’t do something incorrect.
“On this specific case, the court docket is of the opinion, primarily based on case legislation, that this was a correct ex-parte assembly,” Glanville stated.
