Young Thug's high-profile racketeering case will lose a key player: the Atlanta judge who has presided over the trial since November.
Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville will no longer oversee 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 “‘need to preserve public confidence in the judicial system’ weighs in favor” of excusing Glanville from the case, despite the court’s belief that he would continue to “fairly preside over this matter” if the motions were denied.
Glanville’s recusal comes weeks after defense attorneys for Young Thug and defendant Deamonte Kendrick, and attorney Kayla Bumpus, filed motions demanding that the judge recuse himself from the case. The motions accused Glanville of holding an “improper” meeting with prosecutors and a prosecution witness, which did not include the defendants or their attorneys.
In June, Glanville met with prosecution witness Kenneth Copeland and his attorneys. Bumpus had previously represented Copeland, but relieved her of her duties during her testimony on June 11. The June 10 meeting quickly became a point of tension in an already stop-start trial.
Brian Steel, Young Thug's (real name Jeffrey Williams) defense attorney, accused Glanville of holding the alleged secret meeting, but did not reveal how he knew about it. As a result, Glanville found Steel guilty of criminal contempt and sentenced him to 10 weekends in Fulton County Jail, though Steel was quickly acquitted of the sentence.
Glanville said at a hearing earlier this month that he would make public the transcript of the June 10 meeting. He also said he would cancel a hearing that was scheduled to take place at that time “for an indefinite period” and would send the motions calling for his recusal to another judge.
“So this written order is made, I will make the transfer order. Until those things are decided, then we will be in recess until that time,” Glanville said at the time.
The case will be reassigned, according to the order, potentially leading to 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 crime gang Young Slime Life, or YSL.
