Young Thug RICO trial set to proceed as judge turns down mistrial request

ATLANTA (CN) — A Georgia judge's decision to deny a mistrial and move forward with the racketeering trial against Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Young Thug left defense attorneys disappointed Friday.

"I have requested a certificate of immediate review so an appellate court will have the opportunity to weigh in on the important issue of mistrial instead of wasting further time and taxpayer resources on this putrescent trial," attorney Doug Weinstein said in a statement Friday.

"No remedies fashioned by this honorable court can cure the due process violations that have repeatedly occurred over the past 19 months," he added.

Weinstein represents Deamonte Kendrick, one of the five remaining defendants in the case who sought a mistrial last month over prosecutorial misconduct by the state. The motion was the last of requests from defense attorneys asking for a mistrial to be denied by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker late Thursday night.

Kendrick argued that he and the other defendants had a right to be present at a secret ex-parte meeting held on June 10 between prosecutors, their key witness Kenneth Copeland, and the trial's former judge.

All of the defendants in the case accused the judge and lead prosecutors, Chief Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love and Deputy District Attorney Simone Hylton, of coercing Copeland into testifying by threatening him with indefinite jail time if he refused.

"No instruction can cause this jury to unhear Mr. Copeland’s testimony. A fair judge going forward can’t cure a biased judge’s presiding over this case in the past," Weinstein said.

"The damage done by Judge Glanville and the state has infected the entire body of this trial and emergency amputation of the judge can’t save it. Nevertheless, we will continue to fight for justice and the eventual freedom of Mr. Kendrick," he added.

The secret meeting resulted in the recusal of Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville. Whitaker has spent the week working with prosecutors and defense counsel on which evidence and testimony from Copeland that was presented to the jury amidst Glanville's recusal should be redone, as well as what instructions to give them in the wake of his absence.

Copeland was jailed for refusing to testify on June 7, but agreed to take the stand the following week. Copeland is widely believed to have informed police of the crimes Young Thug and the purported YSL gang are accused of committing.

In her order, Whitaker wrote that some of the information provided to Copeland during the ex-parte meeting may have been inaccurate.

"While it is likely that Copeland was not induced by any inadvertent or other inaccuracy to testify, the cleaner approach is simply to pretermit this issue, acknowledging past inaccuracies, and advise Copeland anew. This is the course that the court has proposed, and the parties have affirmed its efficacy," Whitaker wrote.

At the meeting, Copeland said, “I have never been truthful a day in my life,” according to the transcript. It was information defense attorneys found out about only after seeking Glanville’s removal from the case.

Defendant Shannon Stillwell argued that prosecutors should be disqualified for violating the Brady rule by not handing this and other evidence over to defense attorneys throughout the now 20-month long case.

In her response to Stillwell's motion for a fair and constitutional trial, Whitaker acknowledged that as the prosecution’s key witness, Copeland’s statement would have been helpful to the defense.

"Copeland may have little credibility. He may speak in hyperbole. But the fact remains that for a defense attorney, this nugget by a key state’s witness is gold," Whitaker wrote.

"So when the prosecution not only did not reduce this statement to writing and produce it, but also asserted in court filings that the defense had no entitlement to know the contents of the ex-parte proceedings, this amounted to suppression, whether willful or otherwise, of what was objectively Brady impeachment material," she added.

Whitaker wrote that because the state's suppression of evidence appears to be out of negligence and not a purposeful violation, she declined to remove the prosecutors from the case.

Instead, the judge ordered the entire prosecution team to undergo training on what constitutes violations of a Brady judicial rule requiring them to disclose all evidence.

The jury is now set to return to the courtroom Monday after an eight-week hiatus. Following a string of delays and lengthy juror selection process, the ongoing “Young Slime Life” trial is the longest in Georgia history.

Brought in May 2022, the 65-count indictment contains 191 “overt acts” that prosecutors contend were carried out in furtherance of a gang known as "Young Slime Life," or "YSL." A total of 28 defendants were named, but many are no longer part of the trial, either because they accepted plea deals or have had their cases severed.

Prosecutors say the gang is responsible for a string of shootings, robberies and selling drugs across Atlanta. They claim Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffrey Williams, was the co-founder and leader of the gang, although he denies the charges and says YSL is merely the acronym of his record label, Young Stoner Life.

Follow @Megwiththenews

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