{"id":1938,"date":"2024-07-24T19:56:42","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T19:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/young-thugs-lawyer-asks-new-rico-trial-judge-to-release-him-from-jail\/"},"modified":"2024-07-24T19:56:42","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T19:56:42","slug":"young-thugs-lawyer-asks-new-rico-trial-judge-to-release-him-from-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/young-thugs-lawyer-asks-new-rico-trial-judge-to-release-him-from-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Thug’s Lawyer Asks New RICO Trial Judge to Release Him From Jail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tThe new judge in Young Thug\u2019s sprawling Atlanta gang trial has been greeted by a flood of new motions, including a renewed demand to release the rapper from the \u201ctorturous conditions\u201d he\u2019s faced while sitting in jail for more than two years.<\/p>\n

\n\tA week after Judge Paige Reese Whitaker<\/strong> took the reins in the massive racketeering case, Thug\u2019s attorney Brian Steel<\/strong> asked her on Tuesday (July 23) to release the rapper on bond and allow him to live under house arrest with strict monitoring until a verdict is reached.<\/p>\n

\n\tJudge Ural Glanville<\/strong>, who was removed from the case<\/a> earlier this month after revelations of a secret meeting with prosecutors and a key witness, has repeatedly denied such requests. In his new motion, Steel told Whitaker that those rulings had forced Thug to \u201clanguish\u201d in jail for years without ever being convicted of a crime.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe most fundamental premise of our criminal justice system is that the criminally accused cannot be punished for an offense until the prosecution proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,\u201d Steel told the new judge in his filing. \u201cIn our society, liberty is the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThug (Jeffery Williams) and dozens of others were indicted in May 2022 over allegations that their YSL was not really a record label called Young Stoner Life but rather a violent Atlanta gang called Young Slime Life. 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 kicked off in January 2023 but has faced repeated delays and disruptions, including an unprecedented 10-month jury selection, the stabbing of another defendant and now the removal of the presiding judge. Prosecutors have only presented part of their vast list of potential witnesses, and the case is expected to run well into 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince being arrested on the day the indictment was released, Thug has sat in jail. Steel has repeatedly asked for pre-trial release, but Glanville rejected those requests after Fulton County prosecutors warned that the rapper might intimidate witnesses if granted bond. At a hearing last year, the judge ruled that Thug posed \u201ca significant risk to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Tuesday\u2019s motion, Steel urged Whitaker to reject those concerns, repeating his previous promises that Thug would submit to strict conditions under house arrest. Steel said those conditions include the use of electronic monitoring, the hiring of off-duty police officers to guard him, subjecting all communications to monitoring and requiring searches of all people entering the home.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis will prevent any possibility to intimidate a witness or otherwise obstruct the administration of justice,\u201d Steel wrote. \u201cWith these parameters in mind, it cannot be said that Mr. Williams would be a threat or a danger to the community or any person or property in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThug\u2019s conditions while \u201clanguishing in the county jail\u201d have been \u201ctortuous,\u201d Steel wrote \u2014 including 22 hours of daily isolation, \u201cinedible food\u201d and an \u201cant infested room\u201d from which he cannot see out the windows.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOrdering Mr. Williams to wear an ankle monitor and to be in \u2018total lockdown\u2019 in his home is the equivalent to custody and confinement and has been deemed lawful confinement without the punishment imposed by the current county jail conditions wrongly imposed on Mr. Williams,\u201d Steel wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to Thug\u2019s renewed motion for bond, Whitaker is also facing a flood of other motions as she takes over the case, including multiple requests to declare a mistrial.<\/p>\n

\n\tEchoing a similar motion already filed by Thug\u2019s legal team earlier this month, attorneys for Yak Gotti (Deamonte Kendrick) argued in a Tuesday filing that Glanville\u2019s secret meeting with prosecutors was an \u201cegregious violation\u201d and grounds for an immediate mistrial: \u201cKendrick\u2019s Constitutional rights were violated when neither he nor his attorneys were present at a critical stage of the proceedings,\u201d attorney Doug Weinstein <\/strong>wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tAttorneys for Quamarvious Nichols, another YSL defendant, made a different argument for a mistrial: that a brand new judge could not possibly \u201cmake informed rulings\u201d after missing the first 19 months of trial in which over 100 witnesses had already testified.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTrials evolve and decisions are made by the court based in part on the way the trial and evidence play out over time,\u201d attorney Bruce Harvey<\/strong> wrote. \u201cThis Court has missed crucial proceedings necessary to make fair and well-founded rulings and to properly instruct the jury both during and at the conclusion of trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhitaker is facing new filings from prosecutors, too. In a motion filed Tuesday, the Fulton County District Attorney\u2019s office asked the judge to order defense attorneys to stop making \u201cextrajudicial statements to the media\u201d about the case, arguing that it could have a \u201cprejudicial effect\u201d on jurors. Prosecutors cited specific statements allegedly made by Steel, Weinstein and other defense lawyers to media outlets.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhitaker has set a hearing date for next week to hear and potentially decide the various new motions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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