Young Thug. Photo by Suzanne Cordeiro / AFP / Getty Images
Jury selection in the RICO trial of Young Thug and his label Young Stoner Life (YSL) is underway, and it’s safe to say that the entire case is one of the most closely watched in the country. The anticipation is such that one prospective juror couldn’t resist whipping out her cell phone and recording some of the court proceedings, an action which earned her five hours in jail and some angry words from the trial’s judge.
The individual, referred to in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s report as Juror 1004, was handcuffed and removed from the courtroom on Monday morning and released at 3:30 p.m. She was believed to have been live-streaming the proceedings, but an investigation revealed that she had recorded and deleted a video.
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Juror 1004 claimed that she didn’t know that she wasn’t permitted to film. However, Chief Judge Ural Glanville was not convinced. “I went through a very long and arduous process of telling people what they could not do and you violated that,” he told Juror 1004. “And you put this trial in jeopardy by doing that.”
While initially told she would have to spend 72 hours in jail, she was brought back into the court on Monday afternoon and apologized for filming. Judge Glanville said that he would try and have her assigned to a separate case.
The jury selection process for the YSL trial has been a dramatic one. Another juror candidate took an unannounced vacation to Puerto Rico and was ordered by the court to write a 30-page research paper on the importance of serving in a jury. A separate individual was held in contempt for communicating about the trial with a reporter and sentenced to 10 hours of community service. The entire process of choosing citizens to serve on the jury could take another two months.
