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Young Thug's lawyer is arrested in court and ordered to spend 10 weekends in jail for contempt in rapper's RICO trial
The latest twist in Young Thug's lengthy racketeering trial was his own defense team being thrown in jail for the next 10 weekends for refusing to tell the presiding judge how he heard about a privileged conversation.
Attorney Brian Steel somehow learned of a conversation that was between Judge Ural Glanville, prosecutors and Kenneth Copeland, one of the state's star witnesses, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.
Steel and Glanville got into a heated spat with one another in open court on Monday, starting with Steel confronting the judge about this alleged secret meeting in the judge's chambers on Monday morning.
The judge said the talk was ex parte, which means it was only for the parties involved, but Steel argued that Young Thug and himself had a right to be in that meeting under the Georgia Constitution.
Steel wanted to know what happened in the meeting but the judge quickly redirected the conversation back to how Steel found out about the meeting. To which, Steel refused to tell him.
Young Thug, real name Jeffery Lamar Williams, is seen sitting wearing a gray sweater as his attorney Brian Steel, right, is being detained by a court officer
Steel is escorted out after Judge Ural Glanville ordered he spend the next 10 weekends in jail for contempt of court
'I'm asking you how did you get this information?' Glanville asked Steel, who was standing at the lectern.
'I'm not telling the court,' Steel responded, later requesting a mistrial over this.
The conversation was a dead end from there and Glanville ordered the bailiff to take Steel into custody.
'You got some information you shouldn't have gotten,' Glanville told the rapper's attorney.
'You're not supposed to have communication with a witness who's been sworn,' Steel said, referring to Copeland who was sworn in Friday.
Steel was ordered to report to the Fulton County Jail by 7 p.m. Friday for 10 weekends, totaling 20 days.
Judge Ural Granville told Steel he was to report to the Fulton County Jail by 7 p.m. Friday for 10 weekends, totaling 20 days.
At the opening of the racketeering trial in November 2023, prosecutors said Young Thug, real name Jeffery Lamar Williams, 32, used his record label Young Stoner Life (YSL) as a front for 'Young Slime Life,' a street gang affiliated with the LA-based Bloods gang.
Racketeering refers to acquiring a business illegally, running a business with illegally-derived finances, or using a business to break the law.
Essentially the claim is that Young Stoner Life and Young Slime Life were one in the same.
This YSL gang has allegedly recruited the young people around Young Thug to commit crimes of murder, assault, carjacking, drug dealing and theft as far back as 2013.
Young Thug was arrested in May of last year in upscale Atlanta neighborhood Buckhead and has remained in custody ever since.
The original indictment against the gang members, including Young Thug, is a wide-ranging list of 181 crimes that prosecutors say were committed from as part of the alleged RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) conspiracy to further the gang's interests.
Copeland, also known as Lil Woody, was signed to Young Stoner Life as a rapper and spent the weekend behind bars after refusing to testify Friday, the Journal Constitution reported.
Young Thug, pictured in a 2021 Facebook post, allegedly oversaw dozens of crimes as leader of his Young Slime Life group
Georgia state prosecutor Adraine Love told the court that the Grammy award winner accumulated drugs, cars, and guns as his followers competed to win favor by murdering, stealing and hijacking in a decade-long spree
Copeland initially didn't want to testify, and keeping with his reluctant attitude, he dodged most of the prosecution's questions before Monday's lunch break, which is when Steel said he learned about the conversation that ultimately got him tossed in jail by Glanville.
Once Steel was removed from the courtroom by court officers, Young Thug's other lawyer, Keith Adams, said he didn't want to continue without him.
'You are removing me against his will, my will, and you're taking away his right to counsel,' Steel said on his way out.
Glanville responded by saying he 'doesn't have that luxury,' ordering him to defend his client without the help of Steel.
'You don't get to extort the court,' Glanville said. 'It doesn't work that way.'
He added that the information leak was a 'violation of the sacrosanctness [sic] of the judge's chambers.'
Steel was eventually let back into the proceedings at the insistence of lead prosecutor Adriane Love.
Then, a lawyer for Shannon Stillwell, one of the six co-defendants in the RICO case, asked the judge to release a transcript of the conversation he had with prosecutors and Copeland.
Max Schardt said everyone should have been included in the conversation, but Glanville said he needed to go through the appeals process.
Cameras caught Williams' arrest in May last year and his admission to Fulton County Jail
Nicole Fegan, the attorney representing a defendant in rapper Young Thug at his sensational racketeering trial, was arrested on gang charges months before Steel's contempt arrest
'All I'm asking for is some sunlight,' Schardt said. 'We'd like the transcript… We are trying this case right now to win this case. We are not playing for an appeal. We would like a fair shot at this case right now.'
Schardt added that an appeal could take decades.
Marietta attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who is president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, spoke to the Journal Constitution, revealing that she is representing Steel in his efforts to be released from custody.
Merchant has been representing lawyers found in contempt of court for at least 10 years as part of her legal group's 'strike force' team.
'We're not OK with this,' Merchant said. 'We're not going to let this happen to our brother, who was simply doing his job ... This is not how advocates should be treated. It's hard enough being a criminal defense attorney, and we shouldn't be threatened with jail.'
Young Thug, right, with fellow rapper Gunna in 2019
Upon arriving to the Fulton courthouse alongside two dozen other Atlanta attorneys advocating for Steel, Merchant asked that Glanville recuse himself from Steel's contempt case.
This nightmarish maze of controversy that Steel has fallen into isn't the first and likely won't be the last, as the trial is expected to continue into 2025.
Jury selection began on January 4, 2023 and took 10 months. Monday marked the 88th day of the trial, which has been marred with repeated delays.
Steel isn't even the first of the attorneys representing YSL defendants to face serious legal trouble.
Nicole Fegan, who was representing Tenquarius Mender, was arrested in February on charges of participating 'in criminal street gang activity and criminal solicitation to commit the offence of tampering with evidence,' according to the district attorney's office.
Young Thug faces up to 20 years in jail in front of the same Fulton County team that is also prosecuting ex-president Donald Trump under the same racketeering laws.