Young Thug RICO Trial Judge Blasts Atlanta Prosecutors for ‘Haphazard’ Case & ‘Poor Lawyering’

The judge overseeing Young Thug’s sprawling Atlanta gang trial appears to have reached her wits’ end with the prosecutors trying the case — complaining of “poor lawyering, “baffling” decisions and steps to repeatedly “hide the ball.”

At a hearing on Monday (Sept. 30), Judge Paige Reese Whitaker sharply questioned Chief Deputy DA Adriane Love over her handling of the trial, which has already been going for nearly two years and is expected to run well into next year.

“It is baffling to me that somebody with the number of years of experience that you have, time after time after time, continues to seemingly and purposefully hide the ball to the extent you possibly can, for as long as you possibly can,” Whitaker said to Love, appearing visibly frustrated.

“I really don’t want to believe that it is purposeful but honestly, after a certain number of times, you start to wonder how can it be anything but that, unless it is just that you are so unorganized that you are throwing this case together as you try it,” she added, saying that the “haphazard” approach was making the trial more difficult for everyone involved.

The reprimand for Love, over an issue with evidence that she tried to introduce without a witness, prompted Young Thug’s defense attorneys to move to a mistrial. Though the judge ultimately denied that request, she warned prosecutors that she was nearing her breaking point.

“I truly am struggling with whether all of this is purposeful, or this is just really poor lawyering on the part of members of the state’s team. Either way, it’s really unfortunate. If it’s something other than poor lawyering, it’s more than unfortunate,” the judge wrote. “I don’t know if I can stress any more than I already have how much the state’s lawyers need to make an effort to be upfront and forthright in the trial of this case.”

Thug (Jeffery Williams) and dozens of others were indicted in May 2022 over allegations that their YSL was not really a record label called Young Stoner Life but rather a violent Atlanta gang called Young Slime Life. Citing Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, prosecutors claim the group operated a criminal enterprise that committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.

The trial kicked off in January 2023 but has faced repeated delays and disruptions, including an unprecedented 10-month jury selection, the stabbing of another defendant and a bizarre episode in which the presiding judge was removed from the case over a secret meeting with prosecutors. Whitaker took over the case in July.

While the slow-moving trial has dragged on, Thug has been sitting in jail for more than two years, repeatedly denied bond by both judges to handle the case over fears that he might intimidate witnesses. Prosecutors have only presented part of their vast list of potential witnesses, and the trial is expected to run well into 2025.