{"id":1794,"date":"2024-07-15T21:02:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T21:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/young-thug-rico-trial-judge-ordered-removed-from-case-over-meeting\/"},"modified":"2024-07-15T21:02:02","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T21:02:02","slug":"young-thug-rico-trial-judge-ordered-removed-from-case-over-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/young-thug-rico-trial-judge-ordered-removed-from-case-over-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Thug RICO Trial Judge Ordered Removed from Case Over Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tThe Atlanta judge overseeing rapper Young Thug\u2019s gang trial has been ordered removed from the case \u2014 a stunning development in sprawling proceedings that have already become the longest-running in Georgia state history.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ruling, issued by Judge Rachel Krause<\/strong>, came a month after revelations of a secret \u201cex parte\u201d meeting between Judge Ural Glanville<\/strong>, prosecutors and a key witness. Attorneys for Thug and other defendants have argued that the meeting violated their constitutional rights to a fair trial.<\/p>\n

\n\tGlanville says the meeting was proper and has repeatedly refused requests to step down, but earlier this month referred the case to Krause to decide whether he should continue presiding over it. And in a decision on Monday (July 15), she said that he should not.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis court has no doubt that Judge Glanville can and would continue presiding fairly over this matter if the recusal motions were denied,\u201d Krause wrote. \u201cBut the necessity of preserving the public\u2019s confidence in the judicial system weighs in favor of excusing Judge Glanville from further handling of this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKrause did not specify who would take over the proceedings, or how the ruling would impact the timeline of the trial, which has already been underway for more than 18 months. Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys immediately returned requests for comment on Monday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThug (Jeffery Williams) and dozens of others were indicted in May 2022 over allegations that his \u201cYSL\u201d was not really a record label called \u201cYoung Stoner Life\u201d but rather a violent Atlanta gang called \u201cYoung Slime Life.\u201d Citing Georgia\u2019s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, prosecutors claim the group operated a criminal enterprise that committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trial has already been beset by procedural delays. Jury selection last year took more than 10 months to complete, and prosecutors have already spent many months presenting only part of their vast list of witnesses. The case is expected to run until at least early next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast month, Thug\u2019s attorney, Brian Steel<\/strong>, revealed that he had learned of a secret meeting between Glanville, prosecutors and a key witness named Kenneth Copeland. Claiming that the judge had helped prosecutors coerce the uncooperative Copeland into testifying with threats of extended jail time, Steel argued that the ex parte meeting was clear grounds for a mistrial.<\/p>\n

\n\tRather than address Steel\u2019s complaints, Glanville instead demanded to know how he had learned of the meeting and eventually ordered him sent to jail when he refused to share his source. Since that bizarre incident, Steel and other defense attorneys have repeatedly demanded that Glanville step down from the case.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGlanville\u2019s actions offend public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary,\u201d wrote fellow defendant Yak Gotti (Deamonte Kendrick) in a petition last month to Georgia\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her ruling on Monday, although Krause ordered Glanville removed from the case, she made a point to say that the ex parte meeting itself appeared to have been mostly above board: \u201cWhile the meeting could have \u2014 and perhaps should have \u2014 taken place in open court, nothing about the fact of the meeting or the substance discussed was inherently improper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRather than the meeting with prosecutors itself, Krause said that it was Glanville\u2019s later handling of the fallout from those revelations \u2014 namely, his choice to rule on a dispute in which he himself was involved \u2014 that now required that he step away from the case.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn presenting his record as to the recusal issues and in ruling on Kendrick\u2019s motion, Judge Glanville evaluated and accepted the truth of his own factual allegations, mandating his recusal,\u201d Krause wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta judge overseeing rapper Young Thug\u2019s gang trial has been ordered removed from the case \u2014 a stunning development in sprawling proceedings that have already become the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[294,423,2010,1527,2250,2513,1095,342,1094],"class_list":["post-1794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-case","tag-judge","tag-meeting","tag-ordered","tag-removed","tag-rico","tag-thug","tag-trial","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}