A Georgia judge rejected Young Thug’s attorney Brian Steel’s motion to disqualify the lead prosecutor in the YSL RICO trial on Thursday (April 4). According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Judge Ural Glanville allowed Assistant District Attorney Adriane Love to remain on the case despite Steel’s concerns about her questioning of a witness.
Steel claimed Love made herself an unsworn witness when she mentioned her conversations with a state witness in the presence of jurors. The state witness said an investigator for the prosecution harassed her in her testimony, which focused on an alleged incident involving Young Thug and YSL co-founder Walter Murphy in 2013.
Love pressed the state witness by saying, “Isn’t it true you told me” or “Isn’t it true that I told you” during questioning. Steel believed Love’s questions opened the door for him to cross-examine the prosecutor.
“Prosecutor Love has become a witness in this case solely because Prosecutor Love has, for some reason that only she is aware, voluntarily and continuously injected herself as an unsworn witness in this case for which no other witness, investigator or otherwise, is available to answer the questions that Prosecutor Love has forced [the defense] to ask,” Steel wrote in a motion filed on Monday (April 1).
Steel argued Love should be disqualified if he cannot cross-examine her. Assistant District Attorney Dane Uhelski pushed back, saying disqualification wasn’t appropriate. Judge Glanville sided with the prosecution.
Young Thug’s slow-moving RICO trial began in November 2023. Judge Glanville threatened to hold court on weekends to speed up the trial if necessary.
Prosecutors still have more than 150 witnesses to call as the trial is expected to last at least six more months. The jury is off this week for spring break.
Young Thug has remained behind bars since his 2022 arrest. He maintains his innocence.