As has now been widely reported, the judge overseeing the long-running YSL RICO case against rapper Young Thug and others has been removed from the case after two defendants sought his recusal, citing a meeting the judge held with prosecutors and a state witness.
Journalist George Chidi , who has sat in the courtroom daily during the YSL trial, joined The Big Tigger Morning Show to discuss the trial, recusal of Judge Ural Glanville , and share his thoughts on what fans can expect for Young Thug's outcome to be.
LISTEN NOW: V-103's Big Tigger Morning Show: Journalist George Chidi
When asked if he foresaw this happening, Chidi expressed, “I did, at this point I think this is unsurprising, Glanville screwed up.” Adding, “I think this is the tip of the iceberg.”
“The fact that he's off the case is one thing, I think he's going to end up in front of the Judicial Qualifications Commission,” George continued. Going on to explain, “that’s the state body that determines whether or not you're going to stay a judge.”
“Yeah, this was bad, and the irony here is that the judge that said Glanville has got to leave says that he didn't do anything wrong. But it doesn't matter what she says, it's what that Judicial Qualifications Commission and the Georgia Supreme Court.”
"For folks listening who are Young Thug fans, here’s what I think happens next. There’s a new judge that's been assigned, that judge though, almost certainly, the first thing that judge is going to end up hearing is a bond hearing, and I think it is predictable at this point that Young Thug is actually going to get a bond.”
After receiving a surprised response to his statement, George was asked if he thought the case would end in a mistrial. “I think there should be. And I hate saying that because I would like to see this resolved in court one way or another immediately.” Because as he confirmed, “If they end up with a mistrial, then yes, they have to start from the beginning.”
If that were to be what transpires, Chidi confidently stated, “I expect the District Attorney to re-indict and keep going after him. I mean, the charges are serious and there's a lot of evidence. Obviously the question is whether or not they try to do it in RICO,” noting, “I think that's part of what screwed things up here… Other cases with similar stuff get through court in like three or four months right now.”
Responding to inquires about Lil Woody being on the stand, George frankly expressed, “I would like Lil Woody to not be on the stand, or anywhere at this point. He is turning into this like social media thing and it makes light of the death of many, many people."
"Woody is the center of this case, Woody is why all of this happened. Woody getting robbed at Club Crucial in South Atlanta in 2015 is what set off the war. He is the person who knows what happened and he is clowning… It’s for purpose, I understand that, because he's kind of screwed no matter what happens. He testifies and everybody hates him and there's a target on his back, which was the point that Brian Steele was making like he doesn't actually want this guy to get killed.” As for the other outcome, “he doesn't testify and he goes to jail. And honestly, at this point, him in jail, in this jail, might be more dangerous than him on the street.”
Big Tigger , “just for a point of clarity,” asked if the reason for Glanville’s recusal is “because the meeting happened…or what happened in the meeting?”
“Why he's being recused has nothing to do with the meeting and everything to do with what judge Glanville said and did,” George clarified. “After the meeting, the judge that made the order for recusal said the meeting was OK. But the law says once a recusal request has been made and accepted, the judge has to shut up. The judge has an obligation to not defend against the recusal because that itself makes you look biased. And Rachel Cross said that's what Glanville did and that was enough to create the appearance of impropriety.”
Confirming Tigger’s understanding that once a there’s a “new judge on the case… they kind of pick up from where they started.”
George said, “Yeah, they'll start from where things left off about a month ago,” sharing he believes when that does occur, “Brian Steel is going to say — 'look, this should have been declared a mistrial six months ago, like let's have a serious conversation about whether or not this should continue the way it's going.'”
Delving back into his thoughts about Young Thug getting bond once things pick back up, Chidi clarified, he believes he’ll receive it not because of how long he’s already been in jail, but rather “because all of the other people are out of jail.”
“There were 28 defendants when this started and all but six of them are somewhere else,” George continued. “The ones who had been convicted of a crime are in prison or still in prison, but most of them were given probation as part of a deal and they're on the street. And there hasn't been this wave of murders… like the DA was saying, ‘you can't let any of these people out because it will be chaos’ …there hasn't been chaos.”
“I think this whole thing was about getting Young Thug off the street for some period of time in order for the police to get crime under control during the pandemic,” George expressed. Noting, “murder rate went up about 60% during the pandemic. It was the highest, biggest spike of any large city in the United States.”
“The district attorney comes in and says I'm going get this under control. I'm going to go after gangs and went after Young Thug, in part because they have this huge investigation that had been going on for seven years, but it also made an example of him. You could see a timeline where the murder rate starts to fall the week he got arrested.”
“Now, I don't think he was like, out there murdering people,” Chidi did say, “but I think it set a signal and I think the DA and the judge sort of went with that because it looked like it was working, but there isn't a big murder spike going on now, like we've regressed all the way back to 2019 numbers… The police rationale for keeping Young Thug in jail is gone.”
To catch all of George Chidi commentary on the YSL Rico case, listen to the entire conversation above.
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