During a 90-minute status hearing with attorneys in the case, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker said she would like to have the jury back on Aug. 5 at the earliest. It’s been nearly two months since she last heard testimony in the case. Judge Whitaker repeatedly warned both the prosecution and defense that she doesn’t want to waste time getting the trial back on track.
But Judge Whitaker also agreed with the defense’s argument that the current trial should be thrown out and restarted. Judge Whitaker is scheduled to address the motion in a series of hearings later this month to address all outstanding issues regarding the trial, witnesses and evidence before ordering the jury to retry the case.
“If we’re going to move forward with this case, we want to be able to move forward with this case and resolve everything that’s going to come up,” Whitaker said.
Judge Whittaker, appearing in court for the first time since taking over the case on Wednesday, repeatedly suggested that if the trial does go ahead, it will move at a faster pace than has been the case so far, stressing the need to be “efficient” and stop “wasting” jurors’ time.
“How long has this been going on for?” Whittaker said, laughing.
The answer is 18 months. The longest running criminal trial In Georgia history.
Whittaker will take over the case two days after Judge Ural Granville, who has been presiding over the case for two years. Removed During the trial, while his and the prosecutors’ complaints continue. held an inappropriate meeting Along with key prosecution witnesses.
She was the third judge to handle the case. The case was initially transferred to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukla Ingram on Monday, but she abruptly recused herself on Wednesday. Drama before this incident In that case, her legal representative was accused of being romantically involved with one of Young Thug’s co-defendants.
The deputy has since been fired and arrested, and co-defendant Christian Eppinger’s case was separated from Young Thug’s, but Judge Ingram said in a written order that the possibility of the former deputy being called as a witness “could undermine public confidence in the fairness of the trial” because of their previous ties.
Whitaker, a former Fulton County prosecutor who also previously worked in the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, was appointed to the bench in 2017 by then-George Gov. Nathan Deal (R) and was re-elected twice to four-year terms.
Speculation has been rife about whether Whitaker will remain in the case, which has been marked by endless drama since the rapper’s arrest more than two years ago. Rumors circulated Wednesday that several lawyers connected to the case, including Young Thug’s lawyer Brian Steele, had sponsored a fundraiser for Whitaker’s 2022 reelection campaign, a charge not disputed by prosecutors.
The case has moved slowly, with jury selection dragging on for 10 months, testimony halted for weeks and other delays. Eight months after opening statements and with the prosecution halfway through its list of more than 200 witnesses, Granville abruptly called a halt to the trial on July 1 following a defense motion to recuse himself. The jury last heard testimony on June 17.
Several lawyers in the case and outside legal experts have questioned the impact of the long hiatus and whether jurors could have avoided publicity about the chaos in the case that has become headline news in Atlanta.
Steele has filed multiple motions to seek a mistrial, and he and other lawyers have renewed those motions in recent days. Late Thursday, Steele again filed a motion to remove Adrienne Love, the Fulton County assistant district attorney in charge of the case, and another prosecutor who was present last month at a secret meeting between Glanville and former Young Thug associate and material witness Kenneth Copeland.
In his motion last week, Steele notified Glanville and Love that he plans to call them as defense witnesses and question them on sworn depositions about their meetings with Copeland and other private meetings related to the case that the defendants allegedly should have known about.
The immediate question is whether Whitaker should continue with the current jury or start over, something some lawyers say is flawed in the way Glanville’s trial is being handled. If the trial is delayed further, Steele and other lawyers are expected to push for their clients to be released on bail, a move that would likely be fiercely opposed by prosecutors.
During Friday’s hearing, which did not feature Young Thug or any of his co-defendants, Whittaker asked all of his attorneys to introduce themselves and inform him of any pending claims, as he wanted to get a sense of the status of the case quickly.
She did not address any “substantive” issues, including the motion for a mistrial, deferring consideration of those requests to a series of hearings starting July 30 and saying she wanted lawyers to “litigate” any remaining disputes that could delay proceedings if the trial eventually resumes.
Some defense lawyers have asked Judge Whitaker to review some of Glanville’s past rulings, including on evidence, but the judge indicated Friday he has no plans to look back — a move that could provide fodder for defense lawyers seeking a stay of the proceedings.
“Obviously, I’m just going to parachute in and bounce back from there. I’m not going back,” Whitaker said. “I can’t go back and reconsider all the rulings that were already made based on the evidence.”
While Judge Whitaker postponed a key ruling in the case, he also signaled his intention to run his court in a very different way to Judge Glanville, who is known for rarely sitting on time. Judge Whitaker, who started Friday’s hearing two minutes early, warned lawyers that court would begin at 8:45 a.m. every day and that tardiness would not be tolerated. He also lectured both sides about eating in the courtroom. “We’re not going to be watching a movie. We’re not going to be eating popcorn,” Judge Whitaker said.
In what may have been a targeting order for Young Thug, who often appears in flashy costumes, Judge Whitaker also ordered defense lawyers to clean out the courtroom closets where defendants’ court attire is stored because it was becoming too unwieldy. “You don’t want everybody to have 20 outfits,” Whitaker said.
Judge Whitaker also banned Young Thug and his co-defendants from listening to music on headphones during the hearing: When the defense told her they were doing so to relieve “boredom” in the courtroom, Whitaker smiled and replied, “Well, you won’t be bored anymore.”
The indictment against Young Thug is one of two high-profile organized crime cases being led by the Fulton County District Attorney. Fani T. Willis (D) Last summer, the veteran prosecutor Charges against former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen of his associates in conspiracy Trump seeks to overturn his 2020 election loss In Georgia.
The lawsuit is currently being filed by Trump et al. appeal against the judge’s decision Allow Willis to continue the lawsuit. Complaints of inappropriate romantic relationships There is growing concern among Willis’ supporters that the Young Thug case may also be derailed, giving further ammunition to Willis’ political critics as he seeks reelection as Fulton County’s top prosecutor.
Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, and 27 associates were indicted in May 2022 as part of a sweeping grand jury indictment that alleged the rapper and his co-defendants were members of a violent, criminal street gang in Atlanta.
Prosecutors allege that Young Thug was the leader of a gang known as YSL (Young Slime Life) and charged him with organized crime, gang conspiracy, and drugs and weapons charges, while other suspects were charged with other violent crimes, including murder and attempted armed robbery.
Young Thug’s lawyers argue that YSL is just a record label, and that the prosecution Young Thug lyrics In evidence at his trial, he argued that his rhymes were merely artistic expressions and not literal reenactments of criminal acts.
The rapper is on trial alongside five co-defendants, all of whom have pleaded not guilty, after the cases against the other defendants were stayed.
Whitaker on Friday suggested that both the prosecution and defense could use the next few weeks before the jury reconvenes to reconsider the plea agreements. “That could be beneficial,” he said.
