A Fulton County judge was removed from presiding over the Young Thug racketeering trial in Georgia on Monday, prompting defense attorneys to begin plans for a possible mistrial.
Just over two years after the indictment accusing the "Digits" rapper and five others of operating a criminal gang enterprise, the long-delayed case faces new hurdles after Fulton County Judge Rachel Krause granted a motion seeking to recuse Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville. The defense accused Glanville of showing bias toward the prosecution after it was revealed in court that he met with prosecutors and their witness, Kenneth Copeland, on June 10, the day after Copeland said he would not testify.
The new judge who has been assigned to take over the closely watched criminal case is Judge Shukura Ingram, an appointee of former Gov. Nathan Deal who won reelection in May after running unopposed.
Doug Weinstein, the lawyer for the rapper's co-defendant, Deamonte Kendrick, said he had "no issue with another Fulton County judge" hearing the case but that it does not fully resolve the need to “unwind” the case back to June 12, following Glanville’s controversial actions.
"Don't hold me to this but my plan is to file two motions, a motion for mistrial and a motion for bail," Weinstein told independent legal journalist Meghann Cuniff. "There's so many grounds for a mistrial at this point."
The attorney explained that under Georgia law, it would be challenging to reverse the jury’s exposure to Copeland’s testimony. He emphasized that the easiest way for Ingram to declare a mistrial would be to acknowledge this difficulty.
"If they're an unbiased judge, I expect a just outcome for Mr. Kendrick so I'm not going to seek recusal" of the new judge, Weinstein added.
The order to recuse Glanville did not specify when the case proceedings would resume in the already costly and drawn-out trial.
The trial reached its 100th day of actual proceedings on July 1, the same day Glanville said he would pause the case to allow a different judge to determine whether he would remain on the case after the recusal motions were filed.
The 65-count indictment brought in May 2022 cites 191 "overt acts" that prosecutors with the Fulton County District Attorney's office contend were carried out in furtherance of the gang "Young Slime Life," or YSL for short. Prosecutors say the YSL gang is responsible for selling drugs, robberies, and a string of shootings across Atlanta, and they accuse Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffrey Williams, of being the co-founder and leader of the gang.
Young Thug denies all charges and says YSL is simply an acronym for his record label, Young Stoner Life.
The indictment initially named 28 defendants, though many are no longer part of the case because they accepted plea deals or have had their cases severed. The final six defendants left in the trial have been held in the dilapidated Fulton County Jail without bond for two years.
District Attorney Fani Willis is prosecuting the case, along with another high-profile racketeering indictment against former President Donald Trump and several other co-defendants for an alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
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The case against Trump has also suffered from pretrial delays, mainly due to an appeals process that started after co-defendant Mike Roman alleged Willis and her former special prosecutor Nathan Wade had an improper relationship from which they both financially gained.
The Georgia Court of Appeals is slated to hear oral arguments for the appeal from Trump and eight others on Dec. 5, one month after the 2024 presidential election, according to an order on Tuesday.
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