{"id":1409,"date":"2024-06-18T16:11:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T16:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/young-thug-trial-judge-denies-motion-to-step-down-over-secret-meeting\/"},"modified":"2024-06-18T16:11:01","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T16:11:01","slug":"young-thug-trial-judge-denies-motion-to-step-down-over-secret-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/young-thug-trial-judge-denies-motion-to-step-down-over-secret-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Thug Trial Judge Denies Motion to Step Down Over Secret Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tThe Atlanta judge overseeing Young Thug<\/a>\u2019s gang trial is refusing to recuse himself from the case and declare a mistrial, denying a motion filed by the rapper\u2019s lawyers over revelations of an allegedly \u201cillegal\u201d secret meeting with prosecutors and a star witness.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt a hearing in Fulton County Court on Tuesday, Judge Ural Glanville<\/strong> rejected arguments from Thug\u2019s attorney Brian Steel<\/strong> that the judge had \u201cforfeited its role as an impartial judge and has become a member of the prosecution team.\u201d The ruling came just a day after Steel filed his motion, in which he argued that the secret meeting with prosecutors had been an \u201cunforgivable\u201d error.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe court has become a member of the prosecution team in an effort to thwart Mr. Williams\u2019 Constitutional right to a fair trial,\u201d Steel wrote in the motion, referring to Thug by his real name Jeffery Williams<\/strong>. \u201cThis court must be recused, the court and the prosecution have violated Mr. Williams\u2019 rights and the Indictment must be dismissed after a mistrial is declared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in Tuesday\u2019s ruling from the bench, Glanville said that Steel\u2019s allegations were based merely on \u201cbare assertions and legal conclusions which aren\u2019t sufficient for the court to grant your motion.\u201d The judge also refused to pause the trial or allow an immediate appeal the ruling to a higher court.<\/p>\n

\n\tThug and dozens of others were indicted in May 2022 over allegations that his \u201cYSL\u201d group was not really a record label called \u201cYoung Stoner Life\u201d but rather a violent Atlanta gang called \u201cYoung Slime Life.\u201d Prosecutors claim the group committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade. After kicking off in January 2023, the trial is already the longest in Georgia state history and is expected to run until early next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an extraordinary courtroom episode last week, Steel revealed that he had learned of a secret \u201cex parte\u201d meeting that morning between Glanville, prosecutors and a witness named Kenneth Copeland<\/strong>. Steel argued that such a meeting, without defense counsel present, was clear grounds for a mistrial. He claimed Glanville had helped prosecutors coerce the uncooperative Copeland into testifying with threats of extended jail time.<\/p>\n

\n\tRather than address Steel\u2019s complaints, Glanville instead repeatedly demanded that he divulge who had informed him about a private meeting in his chambers, suggesting the leak was illegal: \u201cIf you don\u2019t tell me how you got this information, you and I are going to have problems.\u201d After Steel refused to do so, the judge eventually held him in contempt and sentenced him to 20 days in jail. The Georgia Supreme Court later halted the sentence while it reviews Glanville\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Monday\u2019s motion demanding Glanville\u2019s recusal, Steel lambasted the judge over the secret meeting, repeatedly referring to it as a \u201cstar chamber\u201d \u2013 a reference to an ancient English judicial practice characterized by secrecy and a lack of due process. He said the incident illustrated that Glanville and the prosecutors are \u201cteaming up to gain an unlawful advantage over Mr. Williams.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMr. Williams\u2019 trial is constitutionally fractured, unfair and lacks all constitutional, statutory and ethical safeguards and protections of due process of law,\u201d Steel wrote. \u201cNo intellectually honest person could believe that coercing witness Copeland to testify in a \u2018star chamber\u2019 setting meets Constitutional muster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the filings, Steel laid out in detail what he believes occurred during the ex parte meeting.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Copeland had reneged on a plan to testify in exchange for immunity, Steel claimed prosecutors and Glanville had warned the witness that if he did not testify, he could be held in custody until the entire YSL case is over \u2013 a process that\u2019s expected to take many years. Steel claims that Glanville gave Copeland a written copy on the rules of perjury, which Steel argued was \u201cno subtle gesture and one that helped the prosecution team to obtain their mission for Mr. Copeland to change his mind and testify.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis court was a participant and was present during these admonitions\/threats to Mr. Copeland,\u201d Steel writes. \u201cThis is witness intimidation, coercion and the court has become a member of the prosecution team in assisting the prosecution to induce a material witness to testify.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to the substance of the meeting, Steel took particular aim at the secrecy of it \u2013 saying that Glanville and the prosecutors not only held the meeting without notice, but \u201cnever intended\u201d to reveal it to defense attorneys until Steel himself learned of it through other means. He also argued that Glanville had \u201cobstructed justice\u201d by refusing to release a transcript, and even suggests that court officers \u201cmay have been instructed to turn off their body cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring Tuesday\u2019s hearing, after Glanville denied the motion to recuse, Steel pleaded in vain with him to reconsider stepping aside. The attorney warned that when he cross-examined Copeland on the witness stand, he would need to ask him about the ex parte meeting with the judge.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m going to ask him how much pressure, if any, the court put on him, and you\u2019re going to be the one instructing the jury,\u201d Steel said to Glanville. \u201cAnd I just can\u2019t imagine how that\u2019s fair to Mr. Williams.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta judge overseeing Young Thug\u2019s gang trial is refusing to recuse himself from the case and declare a mistrial, denying a motion filed by the rapper\u2019s lawyers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1242,423,2010,298,2009,2008,1095,342,1094],"class_list":["post-1409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-denies","tag-judge","tag-meeting","tag-motion","tag-secret","tag-step","tag-thug","tag-trial","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}