ATLANTA — When jurors return to the trial involving rapper Young Thug and the alleged YSL street gang, likely next week, they will have to effectively reset some of what they heard when they were last in court.
Judge Paige Reese Whitaker issued an order Friday night granting a motion by attorneys for Young Thug to strike all proceedings that have occurred since June 12. That was when motions were first filed to recuse Judge Ural Glanville, a legal move that was ultimately successful.
Young Thug's lawyers Brian Steel and Keith Adams filed the motion in mid-July, citing Georgia case law that holds, "If a party files a Motion to Recuse a Trial Judge and the Motion is denied, but it is later determined that the Judge should have been disqualified to act in the case, all proceedings after the filing of the Motion to Recuse are invalid and of no effect."
In the case of Glanville, Young Thug's attorneys had argued a June meeting known as an ex parte meeting -- at which Glanville, prosecutors and a witness, Lil Woody, were present, but no defense lawyers -- was improper to the point of requiring Glanville's removal from the case.
Ultimately another Fulton County judge, Judge Rachel Krause, determined Glanville would be removed from the YSL case. She was deferential in part to Glanville, writing he, "can and would can and would continue presiding fairly over this matter if the recusal motions were denied," but that "the 'necessity of preserving the public's confidence in the judicial system' weighs in favor of excusing Judge Glanville from further handling of this case."
After Glanville's removal, Judge Whitaker took over the case (following the recusal of a second judge who cited a potential conflict).
Whitaker's order Friday night noted that the case law cited by Steel in his motion to strike everything after June 12 "is correct."
"The Court will work with the parties on which testimony and evidence should be resubmitted/re-presented to the jury in this case and whether any other the evidence at issue will be stipulated to as well any needed rulings and/or instructions related to same," Whitaker ordered.
In his original motion to strike, Steel requested the judge to "instruct the petit jury accordingly, including, but not limited to, removing all juror notes from the relevant time period and erasing from the jurors’ minds the invalidated testimony and rulings and any other matters that occurred during this relevant time frame."
You can find the order and the motion below.
Order
Motion