Young Thug has reportedly been hit with new charges as he awaits his trial in the upcoming Young Slime Life RICO case.
According to WSB-TV, the Atlanta District Attorney’s office has charged the Atlanta rapper with street racing, reckless driving and speeding. All misdemeanors, the charges stem from an incident in early May in which he was allegedly driving his vehicle at 120 mph on Interstate 85. Since May 9, he has been behind bars.
Brian Steel, Thugger’s lawyer, said his client is innocent of the charges. “As of two weeks ago, that case was being resolved with a seatbelt violation,” Steel said in a statement, according to the news station. “Today, now it’s indicted in the Fulton County Superior Court. He is being wronged by our system.”
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The trial of Young Thug, Gunna, and 26 other defendants allegedly a part of Young Slime Life is set to begin on the originally scheduled date of January 5, with lead prosecutor Adriane Love putting forth a list of around 300 witnesses.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the two rappers were among those charged in a RICO indictment earlier this year, with prosecutors alleging that the two high-profile rappers are involved in a crime syndicate in Atlanta.
On Thursday (November 17), Fulton County Judge Ural Glanville denied a request from prosecutors to delay the trial. In a filing submitted in October, DA Fani Willis asked for the previously scheduled trial of January 9 to be delayed until March 27.
Willis claims the delay was necessary because eight of the 26 defendants in the RICO case at the time still did not have defense lawyers, with a ninth whose lawyer has filed a motion to withdraw. She also said that “all defendants need to be tried together.”
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“The State believes that future appointed counsel will not have a reasonable time with which to properly prepare their defenses,” the filing stated.
Additionally, the filing stated there were three terabytes of data included in discovery in the case that the defense would have to sort through, and likely not enough time to do a thorough enough job considering their other current caseloads.
The motion faced serious rebuttal from Thugger, Gunna and other’s defense attorneys in the case. Everyone has been held without bond since being arrested in May, with their attorneys having sought their release on bond several times since. A late March trial would’ve meant that all defendants would have spent more than 10 months in jail without a conviction before the case goes to court.
