ATLANTA – A Georgia judge has ordered rapper Young Thug’s lawyer to spend the next ten weekends in jail after finding him in contempt.
The rapper is now on trial in Atlanta on allegations of violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering and gang laws, according to defense attorney Brian Steel. Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville arrested Steel on Monday after the lawyer refused to explain how he learned of a meeting between the judge, prosecutors, and a prosecution witness.
The sudden move is the latest twist in a trial that has stretched on for almost a year with no conclusion in sight and has been fraught with issues.
Young Thug, a Grammy-winning rapper born Jeffery Williams, was charged two years ago in a massive indictment alleging him and over two dozen others of conspiring to violate Georgia’s anti-racketeering laws. He is also charged with gang, drug, and gun charges, and he is on trial alongside five other indicted individuals.
Jury selection in the case began in January 2023 and lasted about ten months. Opening comments were made in November, and the prosecution has been presenting its case since then, calling scores of witnesses.
Steel addressed Glanville in open court Monday, claiming he had been informed of a meeting in the judge’s chambers that morning and “made several claims regarding the sum and substance of the communication that the Court found troubling,” according to Glanville’s order finding Steel in contempt and ordering him to jail.
Only the judge, a court reporter, prosecutors, an important state witness, and the witness’ attorney attended the meeting, and Glanville voiced “serious concern with how this information was improperly disclosed” to Steel. Glanville warned Steel numerous times that if he did not explain how he heard about the meeting and its contents, he would be placed in contempt, according to the order. Steel continually refused.
Glanville ordered Steel to serve 20 days in the Fulton County Jail by spending the next ten weekends there, reporting at 7 p.m. on Fridays and being released at 7 p.m. on Sundays beginning this Friday and lasting until August 18.
Steel asked Glanville if he could spend his days in the Cobb County Jail, where Young Thug is being kept, so he and his client could work on the rapper’s defense, and Glanville responded he had no objections and would speak with the sheriff, according to news reports.
On Monday, Steel filed an appeal to the Georgia Court of Appeals on the contempt order. He also filed a motion requesting that Glanville “reconsider and rescind the order of contempt” or grant him release while his appeal was ongoing.
According to Steel’s request, the judge and prosecutors met with a sworn witness who had been given immunity but was held in contempt for exercising his Fifth Amendment protection. According to Steel’s motion, he told the court that he was aware of the meeting and then moved for a mistrial.
While the judge claims Steel received information he should not have had, Steel’s motion claims the material was not deemed confidential by any court order and that in holding him in contempt, Glanville “has imposed an illegal and inherently inconsistent punishment for this criminal contempt.”
Kenneth Copeland, the witness who attended the meeting with the court and prosecutors, was imprisoned over the weekend after refusing to testify on Friday, despite having an immunity arrangement with prosecutors and agreeing to testify, according to The Atlanta Journal- Constitution. Copeland returned to the stand on Monday and was released on the condition that he continue testifying on Tuesday, according to the newspaper.
Steel informed Glanville that he had heard that a prosecutor had told Copeland that he may be put in jail until all of the charges against the defendants in the indictment were resolved.
“If that’s true, this is coercion, witness intimidation, and ex parte communications for which we have a constitutional right to be present,” Steel stated in court, according to the newspaper.
“I still want to know how you came across this information,” Glanville inquired. “Who told you?”
“What I want to know is why I wasn’t there,” Steel said.
When another defense attorney in the case requested a transcript of the discussion in the judge’s chambers, Glanville responded that there was “nothing improper” about the talk and that he was “more concerned about the disclosure.”
Young Thug has been extremely successful since he began rapping as a teenager, and he is the CEO of his own record label, Young Stoner Life, or YSL. Artists under his record company are referred to as the “Slime Family,” and a compilation album, “Slime Language 2,” peaked at number one on the charts in April 2021.
However, prosecutors claim that YSL also stands for Young Slime Life, a violent street gang centered in Atlanta that is associated with the national Bloods gang and was created by Young Thug and two others in 2012. Prosecutors said the defendants identified in the indictment committed violent crimes, such as murders, shootings, and carjackings, in order to raise money for the gang, improve its reputation, and increase its authority and territory.