ATLANTA – A Georgia judge ordered a lawyer for rapper Young Thug spend the next 10 weekends in jail after holding him in contempt.
Defense attorney Brian Steel represents the rapper, who is currently on trial in Atlanta on charges that include violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering and gang laws. Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville on Monday ordered Steel arrested after the attorney refused to tell him how he found out about a meeting between the judge, prosecutors and a prosecution witness.
The dramatic change is the latest twist in a trial that has dragged on for more than a year with no end in sight and has been plagued by problems.
Young Thug, the Grammy winner whose name is Jeffery Williams, was charged two years ago in a sprawling indictment accusing him and more than two dozen others of conspiring to violate Georgia’s anti-racketeering law. He is also accused of gang, drug and firearms crimes and is on trial with five of the others indicted with him.
Jury selection in the case started in January 2023 It is it took almost 10 months. Opening statements were in November and the prosecution has presented its case ever since, calling dozens of witnesses.
Steel addressed Glanville in open court on Monday, saying he had been informed of a meeting in the judge’s chambers that morning and “made several allegations regarding the sum and substance of the communication which the Court found concerning,” Glanville wrote. in an order declaring Steel in contempt and ordering his arrest.
Only the judge, a court reporter, prosecutors, a key state witness, and that witness’ attorney were present at the meeting, and Glanville expressed “serious concern about the way this information was improperly disclosed” to Steel. Glanville told Steel several times that if he did not reveal how he learned of the meeting and its contents, he would be held in contempt, and Steel repeatedly refused, the order says.
Glanville ordered Steel to serve 20 days in the Fulton County Jail, spending the next 10 weekends there, reporting at 7 p.m. on Fridays and being released at 7 p.m. on Sundays, beginning this Friday and continuing until March 18. August.
Steel asked Glanville if he could serve out his days in the Cobb County Jail, where Young Thug is being held, so he and his client could work on the rapper’s defense, and Glanville said he had no problem with that and would speak to the sheriff. , media outlets reported.
Steel on Monday filed a notice of appeal of the contempt order with the Georgia Court of Appeals. He also filed a motion asking Glanville to “reconsider and rescind the contempt order” or to grant him bail while his appeal is pending.
Steel’s motion says the judge and prosecutors held a meeting with a sworn witness who was granted immunity and who was held in contempt after asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege. Steel’s motion says he revealed in court that he was aware of that meeting and asked for a mistrial.
Although the judge says Steel had information he should not have had, Steel’s motion says the information was not declared confidential by any court order and that by holding him in contempt, Glanville “imposed an illegal and inherently inconsistent punishment for this criminal contempt.”
Kenneth Copeland, the witness who attended the meeting with the judge and prosecutors, was arrested over the weekend after refusing to testify on Friday, despite having an immunity agreement with prosecutors and agreeing to testify, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Copeland returned to the stand on Monday and was released from custody provided he agreed to continue testifying on Tuesday, the newspaper reported.
Steel told Glanville that he heard that a prosecutor told Copeland he could be held in prison until all cases against all defendants in the indictment were completed.
“If that is true, what this is about is coercion, witness intimidation, ex parte communications at which we have a constitutional right to be present,” Steel said in court, according to the newspaper.
“I still want to know how you got that information,” Glanville asked. “Who told you?”
“What I want to know is why it wasn’t there,” Steel replied.
After another defense attorney in the case asked for a transcript of the meeting from the judge’s office, Glanville said there was “nothing inappropriate” about the conversation and that he was “more concerned about disclosure.”
Young Thug has been a huge success since he started rapping as a teenager and serves as the CEO of his own record label, Young Stoner Life, or YSL. His label artists are considered part of the “Slime Family,” and a compilation album, “Slime Language 2,” reached No. 1 on the charts in April 2021.
But prosecutors say YSL also stands for Young Slime Life, which they allege is a violent street gang based in Atlanta, affiliated with the national Bloods gang and founded by Young Thug and two others in 2012. Prosecutors say the people named in prosecution are responsible for violent acts. crimes – including murders, shootings and carjackings – to raise money for the gang, improve its reputation and expand its power and territory.
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