ATLANTA — The judge overseeing the long-running racketeering and gang prosecution against Young Thug and others has been removed from the case after two of the defendants asked to have him recused, citing a meeting he had with prosecutors and a government witness.
Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville postponed the case in Atlanta two weeks ago to give another judge a chance to review the defendants’ motions to be rescinded from the case. Judge Rachel Krause granted those motions Monday and ordered the court clerk to assign the case to another judge.
While not blaming Glanville for organizing the meeting and stating that he had “no doubt that Judge Glanville can and will continue to preside impartially over this matter”, Crouse wrote that “the need to preserve public confidence in the judicial system weighs in favor of relieving Judge Glanville from the case.”
The decision is certain to cause further delays in a trial that has already dragged on for over a year. Jury selection began in January 2023 and took nearly 10 months. Opening statements were given in November and since then the prosecution has been presenting its case, calling dozens of witnesses.
Young Thug, a Grammy winner whose real name is Jeffrey Williams, was charged two years ago in a sweeping indictment that accused him and more than two dozen others of conspiring to violate Georgia’s anti-racketeering law. He is also charged with gang, drug and gun offenses and is on trial along with five others charged with him.
Lawyers for Young Thug and co-defendant Demonte Kendrick had filed a motion to have Glanville recused from the case. They said the judge held a meeting with prosecutors and prosecution witness Kenneth Copeland without the defendant and defense attorneys present. Defense attorneys argued the meeting was “inappropriate” and that the judge and prosecutors had tried to pressure the witness to testify.
Glanville said the meeting was fair and argued that no one gained any tactical advantage as a result of it.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office, which is prosecuting the case, had argued there was no need to recuse Glanville from the case.
The Associated Press has sought comment on Monday’s ruling from Glanville and Young Thug’s attorney. A spokesman for Willis’ office declined to comment.
“While I respect Chief Judge Glanville and her service to this community and country, she became biased during this case,” Kendricks’ attorney, Doug Weinstein, said in an email. He said he looks forward to the case being heard “before an impartial judge,” but said the only just outcome at this time is a “mistrial and bail” for Kendricks, who has been in jail for more than two years.
Krause wrote in his order that he “generally agreed” with Glanville’s assessment of the meeting’s propriety, that there was nothing inherently improper about the meeting or what was discussed there. He wrote that the meeting “could have been — and probably should have been — held in open court.”
But when Glanville denied Kendrick’s motion to resign in court, he “provided context, questioned the veracity of the allegations, and otherwise explained his decisions and actions and argued why those actions were appropriate.” Citing case law, Crouse wrote that when a judge discloses information related to his or her potential resignation, he or she must do so “in as objective, unbiased, and non-argumentative a manner as possible, so that the judge is not reasonably viewed as a hostile witness or attorney.”
Young Thug has been extremely successful since he began rapping as a teenager and serves as the CEO of his own record label, Young Stoner Life, or YSL for short. The artists on his label are considered part of the “Slime Family,” and a compilation album, “Slime Language 2,” reached No. 1 on the charts in April 2021.
But prosecutors say YSL also stands for Young Slime Life, which they allege is a violent Atlanta-based street gang affiliated with the national Bloods gang and founded by Young Thug and two others in 2012. Prosecutors say those named in the indictment are responsible for violent crimes — including murders, shootings and car thefts — to raise money for the gang, burnish its reputation and expand its power and territory.
Young Thug’s attorney, Bryan Steele, acknowledged in his opening statement that his client’s lyrics mention violent acts, including murder, but said they are merely artistic expressions stemming from his childhood hardships and not accounts of his own actions.
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