Atlanta rapper Young Thug was taken to the hospital after feeling sick before court proceedings were set to begin Thursday afternoon.
via: 11 Alive
Keith Adams, the attorney, said Young Thug “had some difficulty of a similar sort” recently in the Cobb County Jail, where he’s been held for nearly a year after being indicted in the sweeping RICO case against the alleged Young Slime Life street gang.
“I’m concerned about his well-being, his condition,” Adams told Judge Ural Glanville.
The attorney said he had not spoken with the rapper, whose legal name is Jeffery Williams. He said he could try to make contact with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office to try and see him at the hospital.
11Alive has reached out to his attorneys to see if more information is available.
Young Thug’s attorneys asserted in legal filings last month that his client is “languishing” in jail as the jury selection process has stretched out for months, with many potential jurors trying to claim hardships for exemption that the court is working through.
The rapper has been in custody for roughly a year since he was arrested last May and indicted on charges accusing him of leading the “Young Slime Life” gang, which claims affiliation with the Bloods. He has been denied bond on multiple occasions.
Williams, who maintains his innocence, is facing a gang activity charge from 2018 and a 2013 charge of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act.
In a motion filed on April 24, Williams’ attorney Brian Steel says the 31-year-old is not able to stay healthy. Steel lists in the motion that Williams has access to limited healthy food options and relies on food with “zero health benefits,” like chocolate and chips.
Steel says Williams has had little access to fresh air and sunlight since May 2022, outside of when he’s transported to and from the courthouse, and exercise is limited because of the small cell.
Additionally, Steel claims that the rapper is “sleep-deprived” because he only receives five hours of sleep each night, and, on court days, must wake up between 3 and 4 a.m.
“By the end of the week, Mr. Williams is fighting to pay attention to the goings on in his case,” Steel said in the motion.
In the filing Steel brought a new request for bond for Williams, arguing that “conditions can be imposed which permit bond to be set.”
An attorney, Suri Jimenez, for one of the other YSL defendants said Thursday his client had experienced similar issues.
“Maybe a few months ago in Cobb County, he also was having chest pains and they had to look into it. I’m sure it’s all stress-related, because he’s a young healthy man,” Jimenez said of his client, Cordarius Dorsey. “There’s no nutrition. That’s part of what the motion Mr. Steel filed. His health was deteriorating, because all he eats is junk food. There’s not even options to eat better.”
He added that Dorsey hasn’t had time to take a bath or shower and that he has to get up at 3 a.m. to arrive at court by 6 a.m.
“The trial is tolling on their bodies and minds. Sadly, my client is serving time. He wouldn’t get out on bond. That’s not an option for him, but the young men that don’t have convictions should be out on bond,” Jimenez said. “They’re presumed innocent.”
