Young Thug now has a third judge assigned to his ongoing YSL RICO case, and thus far, it looks like not much will change — his attempts at a mistrial and to be released on bond both failed.
The trial is now the longest in Georgia history at eight months, and it resumed on Tuesday (July 30), following a delay as they appointed a new judge.
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Judge Paige Reese Whitaker had multiple filings to address, including a request for a mistrial and for bond for Thug. She ruled no on both.
The former was filed by Thug’s lawyer based on the original judge’s finding that his own controversial ex parte hearing was not improper. Whitaker said that declaring a mistrial for that reason would be equivalent to acting as an appeals court, which is beyond the scope of her responsibilities.
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In the case of bond for Thug, she ruled that recent events do not constitute a “change in circumstances,” noting that Judge Ural Glanville was not removed because he was biased.
No bond for Young Thug. pic.twitter.com/F57qF0aLjs
— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) July 30, 2024
Glanville, who had been overseeing the trial since it started, was removed on July 15 after he met with prosecutors and state witness Kenneth Copeland without the knowledge of Thug and his legal team.
He was then replaced by Judge Shakura Ingram – who then recused herself on July 17 because of a romantic relationship her former courthouse deputy had with a co-defendant in the case. Whitaker was named as the new judge that same day.
Young Thug’s co-defendant and fellow YSL rapper Yak Gotti (real name Deamonte Kendrick) also filed a motion for a mistrial in the turbulent case.
On this, Judge Whitaker said the motion is similar to the motion to disqualify the prosecutors (which she said she needs more time on) and that she needed to go through the transcripts a little further before making a ruling.
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Whitaker also said she will make a “substantive finding” about the ex parte hearing on Wednesday (July 31).
