Judge Ural Glanville Recused From Young Thug Trial
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Young Thug and members of his YSL organization have been on trial for racketeering since November, and there’s no end in sight. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, Judge Ural Glanville has been recused from the case after protests from the defense.
Glanville, who ruled last fall that song lyrics would be permissible as evidence in the case, became the center of controversy last month. Brian Steel, a lawyer for Thug (aka Jeffery Williams), was arrested on June 10 after objecting to a private conversation between Glanville, prosecutors, and witness Kenneth Copeland, aka Lil Woody, in which Copeland was believed to have confessed to the killing of Donovan “Nut” Thomas Jr. Copeland had been arrested on the witness stand days earlier for refusing to testify.
In the courtroom on June 10, Steel accused Glanville of “coercion, witness intimidation, ex parte communications that we have a constitutional right to be present for.” When Steel refused to reveal who’d informed him about the private meeting, Glanville sentenced him to 10 weekends in jail, telling him, “You got some information you shouldn’t have gotten.”
Now, in an order signed by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krouse, Glanville has been recused from the court, on the request of Thug and fellow defendant Deamonte Kendrick aka Yak Gotti. The order denies a request by Kayla Bumpus, the attorney who represented Copeland during the private meeting, to keep Glanville in the judge’s seat. The clerk of courts is instructed to assign a new judge to the case.
Steel has not yet commented on the ruling. Doug Weinstein, a lawyer for Kendrick, told the AJC his client should be granted bond now that Glanville is off the case. Weinstein gave this statement to the newspaper: “While we continue to respect Chief Judge Glanville, we agree with Judge Krause that Judge Glanville’s actions at least give the appearance of impropriety. We also maintain that Chief Judge Glanville was biased against Mr. Kendrick and the other defendants in this case. We look forward to trying this case before an unbiased judge to a just conclusion that will free Mr. Kendrick.”
Weinstein told Rolling Stone’s court reporter Nancy Dillon that according to state law, with the recusal, the trial “rewinds” to June 12. But because jurors heard a lot of testimony from Copeland after that date, it’s possible Kendrick’s camp will ask for a mistrial with double jeopardy attached, meaning Kendrick would not be able to be retried for these offenses. “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse, but if we ask for a mistrial, it’s because we were goaded into that through the actions of the prosecution as well as the judge and given that goading, double jeopardy should attach and Mr. Kendrick should not be retried,” Weinstein told Dillon.