Young Thug’s lead attorney was taken into custody Monday and held in contempt after he accused the judge and prosecutors of an improper meeting with a key witness in the case, the Washington Post reports. Brian Steel, a prominent Atlanta criminal defense attorney, was escorted from the courtroom by Fulton County sheriff’s deputies after he confronted Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville about a private meeting the judge and prosecutors held Monday morning with Kenneth Copeland, an alleged associate of Young Thug and star witness in the gang conspiracy case. Steel told the judge that an unnamed source had provided him details of the meeting between Glanville, prosecutors and a sworn witness who was jailed Friday for contempt after he refused to testify in the case.
Steel alleged that on Monday, Glanville and prosecutors told the witness that he would be jailed throughout the trial, prompting him to testify. “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 told Glanville. “How did you come upon this information? Who told you?” Glanville demanded. When Steel refused to divulge his source — claiming it violated attorney-client protections and “work product” privilege — Glanville ordered him held in criminal contempt and taken into custody. Late Monday, after hearing arguments from Steel’s attorneys, Glanville sentenced Steel to 20 days in the Fulton County Jail — a sentence that he ordered to be served on weekends beginning this Friday. Steel asked the judge to allow him to serve that time at the Cobb County Jail, where Young Thug is being held, and not at the Fulton County Jail, which Glanville said he would consider.