young thug lawyer Brian Steele Earlier this year, the rapper won a ruling in the Georgia Supreme Court overturning the trial judge’s controversial decision to hold the attorney in criminal contempt during his ongoing Atlanta gang trial.
In a ruling on Tuesday, the state’s highest court overturned Judge Ural GranvilleIn a contempt ruling in June, he sentenced Steele to 20 days in jail for refusing to reveal how he learned of a secret meeting between a judge and prosecutors, an incident that later led to Granville being removed from the case.
Given that Glanville’s attendance at the secret meeting was directly involved in the dispute with Steele, the Supreme Court ruled that he should recuse himself and allow another judge to decide the lawyer’s fate.
“The exchanges between Steele and Judge Glanville make it clear that Judge Glanville was involved in this controversy,” the high court wrote in its ruling. “For these reasons, a different judge should preside over the contempt Court hearing, if not done it needs to be quashed.”
thug(Jeffrey Williams) and dozens of others were indicted in May 2022 on the basis that his “YSL” was not actually a record label called “Young Stoner Life,” but instead a violent Atlanta music label called “Young Slime Life.” gang. Prosecutors cited Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, claiming the group ran a criminal enterprise that committed murder, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over a decade.
Months into the massive trial, Steele reminded Judge Granville in early June that he had learned that morning the judge, prosecutors and a man named Kenneth Copeland. Steele argued that such a meeting without defense attorneys present could involve coercion of witnesses and be clear grounds for a mistrial.
Rather than address Steele’s complaint, Glanville repeatedly pressed him to reveal who informed him of the private meeting in his room and suggested the leak was illegal: “If you don’t tell me how you got With this information, you and I will have problems.
When Steele refused to comply, Granville held him in contempt of court and sentenced him to 20 days in jail, to be served on ten consecutive weekends. After Steele appealed, the Supreme Court stayed the verdict until a ruling was made.
Glanville argued that the ex parte conference was entirely correct and refused repeated requests to withdraw from the case. But in July, Judge Granville was ordered to resign over concerns about how the incident would affect “public confidence in the justice system” after the case was handed over to another judge.
The bizarre incident caused weeks-long delays before Judge Peggy Rhys Whitaker Since taking over, progress has been slow in a massive trial that is already the longest in Georgia history. Jury selection alone took an unprecedented 10 months, and the case was paused because of the stabbing of another defendant and other unusual incidents.
While the trial has been slow to proceed, Sager has been in jail for more than two years, with two judges repeatedly denying bail in the case over concerns he might intimidate witnesses. Prosecutors have provided only part of a vast list of potential witnesses in a trial expected to last until 2025.
Last month, Whitaker seemed to have his wits about prosecutors trying the case – complaining of “bad counsel, “confusing” decisions and repeated steps to “hide the ball” in a “happy” trial: “I don’t Knowing, if I may emphasize, how much effort it took for the State’s attorney to be candid and forthright during the trial of this case.
