The lawyer representing rapper Young Thug has been sentenced to spend 10 weekends at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta after being held in contempt.
Brian Steel was led out of the courtroom on Monday after Judge Ural Glanville refused to explain a meeting between himself, a state witness, and prosecutors, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The alleged meeting occurred in “judge’s chambers before court began,” the AJC reported.
Glanville ordered Steel to spend 10 weekends — 20 days total — in jail and turn himself in to the Rice Street facility by 7 p.m. on Fridays. Steel asked if he could serve his sentence at the Cobb County Jail instead so he could confer with his client, Young Thug, and Glanville approved his request.
“You got some information you shouldn’t have gotten,” Glanville said to Steel before a courtroom deputy took the rapper’s attorney into custody.
Steel requested a mistrial, telling the judge that “you’re not supposed to have communication with a witness who’s been sworn.” Glanville later allowed Steel to rejoin the courtroom.
The witness, Kenneth Copeland, testified on Monday after initially refusing to do so on Friday when he was expected to. Copeland has an immunity deal that is “contingent on his testimony,” the AJC reported.
Copeland, who is expected to return to the witness stand on Tuesday, avoided the majority of the prosecution’s questions on Monday. During Monday’s lunch break, Steel learned about the alleged meeting and asked Glanville about it when they returned from the break.
“How about the witness, how about Mr. Copeland, who supposedly announced that he’s not testifying and he’ll sit for two years and, supposedly this honorable court, or let me rephrase that, this court, said I can hold you until the end of this trial,” Steel said.
Steel added that he learned that prosecutor Simone Hylton told Copeland that he would be held in jail “until all 26 defendants have their cases disposed of, regardless of how long that might take,” per the AJC.
“If that’s true, what this is is coercion, witness intimidation, ex parte communications that we have a constitutional right to be present for,” Steel said to Glanville.
Glanville responded, questioning Steel about how he learned the information. “What I want to know is why wasn’t I there,” Steel responded.
Glanville then ordered Steel to be removed before saying he would continue with the trial. “I’m not halting nothing,” the judge said per the AJC.
Young Thug was arrested in May 2022 on suspicion of racketeering. The rapper is among 28 people associated with the YSL record label who were charged in a 56-count indictment, according to Complex.