ATLANTA — Rapper Young Thug, already facing a slew of a charges in a high-profile street gang RICO indictment that will soon go to trial, is now also being targeted by prosecutors over alleged driving violations.
A new indictment filed last week in Fulton County charges Young Thug - whose legal name is Jeffery Williams - with racing, reckless driving, speeding and a seat belt violation.
The alleged violations occurred in May 2021. Young Thug's attorney, Brian Steel, told 11Alive the charges are being brought as misdemeanors.
The charges allege that Young Thug was driving 120 miles per hour on I-85 south approaching the I-75 north exit on May 22, 2021, an area with a speed limit of 55 miles per hour. The indictment also charges that he "did unlawfully operate a motor vehicle on a public highway of this state, in a contest and exhibition of speed" - i.e. street racing.
The RICO indictment against the alleged Young Slime Life street gang accuses Young Thug of being the gang's leader. Prosecutors say he actively directed members of the gang and ordered actions the gang took.
"He's the one they're all afraid of, he's the one that's King Slime" is how one prosecutor put it during a bond hearing earlier this year.
Controversially, a portion of the evidence prosecutors have so far pointed to in making those allegations include Young Thug's lyrics and music videos.
Specifically, they also charge that he played a central role in the 2015 Atlanta murder of Donovan Thomas Jr., allegedly renting the car that was used in the killing.
The rapper and his attorneys have strongly maintained his innocence. They've argued he has no associations with any street gangs, and that he and his "YSL" record label - Young Stoner Life - have been community backbones in the underserved and often violent Cleveland Avenue area of Atlanta where he grew up.
“Mr. Williams came from an incredible horrible upbringing, and he has conducted himself throughout his life in a way that is just to marvel at,” attorney Brian Steel said in June.
Cleveland Avenue community organizer Jamil Mitchell said at a bond hearing this year, "without him the neighborhood would be terrible - you gotta think about all the people he helped motivate... to me and I know to a lot of other people, he's a motivator to us."
Jury selection in the trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 9.