Judge in Young Thug RICO case recused as YSL trial in Atlanta goes on hold indefinitely

Young Thug’s high-profile racketeering case will lose a key participant: the Atlanta judge who has presided over the trial since November.

Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville will no longer oversee the court proceedings in the RICO trial, a different Fulton County Superior Court judge ordered Monday, according to legal documents reviewed by The Times. Judge Rachel R. Krause said in an order filed Monday that the “‘necessity of preserving the public’s confidence in the judicial system’ weighs in favor” of excusing Glanville from the case, despite the court’s belief that he would continue “presiding fairly over this matter” if the motions were denied.

Glanville’s recusal comes weeks after defense lawyers for Young Thug and defendant Deamonte Kendrick, and attorney Kayla Bumpus, filed motions demanding that the judge remove himself from the case. The motions accused Glanville of holding an “improper” meeting with prosecutors and a prosecution witness, which did not include defendants and their attorneys.

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In June, Glanville met with prosecution witness Kenneth Copeland and his attorneys. Bumpus previously represented Copeland but he relieved her of duties during his testimony on June 11. The June 10 meeting swiftly became a point of tension in the already stop-and-go trial.

Brian Steel, the defense attorney for Young Thug (real name Jeffrey Williams), accused Glanville of holding the alleged secret meeting but did not disclose how he knew about the gathering. As a result, Glanville found Steel in criminal contempt of court and sentenced him to spend 10 weekends in Fulton County Jail — though Steel was quickly cleared of the sentence.

Glanville said in a hearing earlier this month that he would release the transcript of the June 10 meeting. He also said that he would cancel a then-upcoming hearing “indefinitely” and would send the motions demanding his recusal to another judge.

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“So this written order is entered, I will enter the order transferring it. Until such time that those things are decided, then we’ll be in recess until that time,” Glanville said at the time.

The case will be reassigned, according to the order, potentially posing yet another delay in the months-long trial. Young Thug’s racketeering trial began with opening statements in November, a year after Georgia officials accused the rapper in a sweeping 2022 indictment of being a founding member of the Atlanta criminal gang Young Slime Life, or YSL.