Young Thughis lawyer Brian Steele won a ruling in the Georgia Supreme Court to overturn a judge's controversial decision to hold the attorney in criminal contempt earlier this year amid the rapper's ongoing Atlanta gang trial.
In a ruling Tuesday, the state's highest court reversed Judge Ural GlanvilleThe June contempt ruling sentenced Steel to 20 days in jail for refusing to disclose how he learned about a secret meeting between a judge and prosecutor — an incident that later led to Glanville's removal from the case.
Since Glanville's presence at the secret meeting was directly involved in the dispute with Steel, the Supreme Court ruled that he should have recused himself and allowed another judge to decide the lawyer's fate.
“The exchange between Steel and Judge Glanville makes it clear that Judge Glanville was involved in the dispute,” the high court wrote in its ruling. “For these reasons, a different judge should have presided over the contempt hearing, and the failure to do so requires reversal.”
Well done (Jeffrey Williams) and dozens of others were indicted in May 2022 with allegations that his “YSL” was not actually a record label called “Young Stoner Life” but rather a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life.” Citing Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), prosecutors allege the group ran a criminal enterprise that committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug trafficking and other crimes over a decade.
Months after the mass trial, Steel notified Judge Glanville in early June that he had learned of a secret “ex parte” meeting that morning between the judge, prosecutors and a witness named Kenneth Copeland. Steel argued that such a meeting, without defense counsel present, had the potential to coerce a witness and was clear grounds for a mistrial.
Instead of addressing Steel's allegations, Glanville repeatedly demanded that he reveal who had tipped him off about a private meeting in his room, saying the leak was illegal: “If you don't tell me how you got that information, you and I are going to to have problems”.
When Steel refused to comply, Glanville held him in contempt and sentenced him to 20 days to be served over ten consecutive weekends. After Steel appealed, the Supreme Court put the sentence on hold until it could issue its ruling.
Glanville maintained that the ex parte meeting was entirely proper and refused repeated requests to recuse himself from the case. But in July, after referring the case to another judge, Judge Glanville was ordered to stand down over concerns about how the incident would affect “public confidence in the justice system”.
The strange episode which resulted in the delay several weeks ago Judge Paige Reese Whitaker took over, slowed down in a huge test that already has the largest in Georgia state history. It took an unprecedented 10-month process just to pick a jury, and the case has also been stalled by the stabbing of another defendant and other unusual events.
While the slow trial drags on, Thug has been in jail for more than two years, repeatedly refusing a commitment from both judges to handle the case over fears he might intimidate witnesses. Prosecutors have presented only part of their huge list of potential witnesses, and the trial is expected to last until 2025.
Last month, Whitaker appeared to have reached her end with prosecutors trying the case – complaining of “poor lawyering, “confusing” rulings and steps to repeatedly “hide the ball” amid a “haphazard” trial: “No I know if I can emphasize more than I already have how much effort the state's attorneys need to make to be forthright and honest in the trial of this case.”
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