YSL, Young Thug RICO trial temporarily halted after images of jurors’ faces leak online
The Georgia racketeering trial involving Young Thug and members of Young Slime Life was temporarily halted this week after images that showed the faces of some jurors leaked online. The judge asked members of the media to stop recording inside the courtroom because of safety concerns.
Prosecutors have accused Young Thug, 32, whose given name is Jeffery Williams, and more than two dozen others of a conspiracy to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. He also is charged with gang, drug and gun crimes and is standing trial with five of the others indicted with him.
Prosecutors alleged that Young Thug led YSL as both a music collective and a criminal street gang. YSL shares an acronym with the rapper’s music label, Young Stoner Life.
Young Thug’s attorneys have maintained that the rapper has not committed the crimes of which he’s been accused. .
Rapper Young Thug will have his day in court Monday as opening statements begin in his high-profile RICO case. Here’s what to know about the complex case.
During Atlanta police Detective Mark Belknap’s testimony Wednesday on the third day of the trial, County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville called for a 10-minute break. Belknap was the case’s first witness.
However, the interlude stretched on for about 45 minutes, according to live news streams of the trial. Attorneys from both sides reportedly were meeting with Glanville about an issue.
After the recess, Glanville told the courtroom that some jurors had been shown on the trial’s livestream. Around this time, still shots from the video showing the jurors’ faces had rapidly spread online, including tweets by hip-hop blog No Jumper, which had caught heat in the past for making false claims on social media during the Tory Lanez trial. Some users on social media made claims that they were familiar with members of the jury.
Rap star Young Thug is at the center of a case brought by Georgia prosecutors that alleges that his rap crew, YSL, is actually a violent criminal gang.
Glanville requested that members of the media in the courtroom no longer record images, but said they were allowed to record audio. He didn’t place blame on anyone in the courtroom for the mistake, instead referring to “some security issues” and citing “the fact that we had had an inadvertent recording of some of our jurors on the front row.”
Glanville then called in the jury and Belknap’s testimony resumed.
The long-awaited trial against Young Thug and YSL has proved controversial due to prosecutors’ use of the Grammy-winning rapper’s lyrics. It is also rare for law enforcement to use lyrics in targeting such a high-profile music figure such as Young Thug. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law last year that narrows a prosecutor’s ability to use lyrics as evidence.
Rapper Gunna, arrested last month on a racketeering charge, said in a message on social media that 2022 has been one of the best years of his life.
When prosecutors filed the 88-page indictment in May 2022, they listed lyrics from nine Young Thug songs, including “Eww” and “Ski,” as acts that allegedly further the YSL conspiracy. Along the same lines, prosecutors also described several social media photos of Williams wearing red and allegedly posing with YSL gang hand signs.
On Nov. 9, Glanville announced he would allow prosecutors to introduce 17 sets of lyrics as evidence of Williams’ and others’ alleged criminal acts. The decision goes against the defense attorneys’ arguments that lyrics are constitutionally protected speech and would be unfairly prejudicial, according to the Associated Press.
Defendants in the case include fellow rapper Gunna, whose given name is Sergio Kitchens. He was arrested in May 2022 on a racketeering charge. The “Pushin P” rapper, 30, was released in December 2022 after entering what’s known as an Alford plea, which allows a person to plead guilty — while still maintaining innocence — if it’s believed the prosecution’s evidence likely would result in a guilty verdict at trial.
The indictment also listed Quantavious Grier, Young Thug’s brother, as a co-defendant. He was booked on charges of theft by receiving stolen property as well as racketeering. Grier, a rapper known as Unfoonk, pleaded guilty in December 2022 and was sentenced in June to a little more than nine years in prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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