The prosecutors trying Young Thug’s lengthy racketeering trial will be allowed to remain on the case, the judge has ruled, seemingly paving the way for proceedings to continue next week in front of the jury.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker also decided what to tell jurors when they return to the courtroom after more than a month off. When they left, a different judge was on the bench.
Whitaker took over the turbulent gang case more than two weeks ago after Chief Judge Ural Glanville was removed following outrage from defense attorneys over a private meeting he had with prosecutors, a key witness, and the witness’s attorney.
The 19-month-old trial has been plagued by infighting and even the question of how to explain Glanville’s absence was contentious.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Judge Whitaker. Judge Glanville is no longer the judge presiding over this case for which you have been selected and sworn to try,” Whitaker said, reading her proposed jury instruction. “I will be the presiding judge in this case moving forward. You are not to concern yourself with this change.”
She said she plans to tell the jury that Judge Glanville is fine so they don’t worry about his health.
Her decision is a blow to Young Thug’s attorney, Brian Steel, who had proposed an introduction in which the new judge bluntly tells the jury that Glanville was removed from the case.
He had also hoped Whitaker would instruct them to “disregard any comments made by Judge Glanville that were disparaging of the defense lawyers in the case.”
Whitaker acknowledged on Friday that Glanville did disparage the defense months ago when he called Steel “unprepared” in front of the jury. But she said she is opting for the more generic language of, “you are to disregard any comments that may have been made by Judge Glanville about any of the lawyers in this case.”
Whitaker has yet to decide whether a mistrial is warranted in the case against Young Thug and his five co-defendants, but she appears ready to move forward with what has become the longest trial in Georgia’s history.
On Thursday afternoon, Whitaker rejected Steel’s request to remove Chief Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love and Deputy DA Simone Hylton from the trial.
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
The musician’s attorney had argued that, because of Glanville’s secret June 10 meeting with the prosecution, Love and Hylton had both become witnesses in the case and needed to be available to be cross-examined by defense attorneys.
In her order denying the motion, Whitaker wrote that “a defendant seeking disqualification of prosecutors in a trial bears a heavy burden of proving that such an extreme action is warranted.”
It was not the first time Steel had sought to remove Love from the case. In April, he argued that the lead prosecutor had become an unsworn witness due to questions she asked a witness in front of the jury. Glanville, the former judge, denied the motion and allowed Love to remain on the case.
Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, is accused of being the co-founder and leader of Young Slime Life, which prosecutors allege is a violent criminal street gang based in south Atlanta. Attorneys for the Grammy-winning musician deny the charges. He has been in jail since his May 2022 arrest.
Meanwhile, Glanville has moved on, holding a hearing upstairs Friday in the death penalty case of Robert Aaron Long.
The 25-year-old is charged in the March 2021 shooting spree that left eight people dead at three metro Atlanta spas. The case was assigned to Glanville before the YSL case was indicted.
