Young Thug’s Attorney May Fight Contempt Bid Unopposed

Brian Steel

When defense attorney Brian Steel appears before the Georgia Supreme Court next month to fight his mid-trial arrest that derailed the long-running racketeering case against Atlanta rapper Young Thug, he may well be doing so unopposed.

Prosecutors from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that they have no plans to fight on behalf of the contempt order from a state court judge that nearly had Steel jailed for his refusal to disclose how he learned of a secret meeting between the judge, prosecutors and a key witness in the gang trial.

The district attorney’s office wrote in a letter to the high court’s justices that, because it has little interest in the outcome of Steel’s appeal, it “does not intend to file a substantive response.”

Prosecutors said that “the state agrees” with Presiding Justice Nels S.D. Peterson’s “prior suggestion that it lacks a cognizable interest in this appeal. As such, the state does not assert a position in support of or in opposition to the merits of this appeal.”

Oral arguments in the appeal, set for Oct. 22, will be the latest chapter in a long-running fight over the ex parte meeting that threw the Young Thug trial into chaos and resulted in the ouster of its presiding judge.

The controversy kicked off in early June when Kenneth Copeland, a state’s witness, took the stand to testify about his knowledge of the YSL street gang allegedly headed by Young Thug, also known as Jeffrey Williams. Copeland, however, initially refused to testify and was jailed for contempt by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville.

After a weekend behind bars, Copeland returned to the stand in a more cooperative mood. Within hours, Steel told the court he’d learned of the previously undisclosed ex parte conversation, but rather than defend his actions, Judge Glanville demanded to know how Steel had learned of the chat.

There followed a tense exchange as Glanville threatened to arrest Steel, while the attorney refused to give up his source. Steel was eventually cuffed and ordered to spend 20 days in jail for his criminal contempt, but the Supreme Court of Georgia intervened before he could report to custody.

Judge Glanville’s handling of the controversy eventually got him removed from the trial, which is continuing under Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker.

Steel, meanwhile, is still fighting to have the contempt order tossed. He told the high court in his own brief in August that his actions in June did nothing to disrupt the trial’s proceedings, falling well short of the contempt standard.

“Even if the trial court’s concern regarding the source of Steel’s information about the ex parte meeting was legitimate, the court had less problematic alternatives available to it instead of directing Steel to reveal privileged information, finding Steel in contempt, and issuing the maximum authorized sentence,” he argued.

Steel, of course, also said those concerns were not legitimate, adding that his protests were “not borne out of obstinance or disrespect, but rather zealous advocacy on behalf of his client.”

Backing the prominent defense attorney in his fight is the American Board of Criminal Lawyers, which likewise said that neither Steel nor his source had done anything wrong.

“No privilege was violated by anyone — whoever it was — who told Brian Steel about the ex parte meeting in chambers,” the group said in an Aug. 30 amicus brief. “Judge Glanville never issued an order to seal the ex parte proceedings, nor did he instruct the participants to keep it confidential. The meeting itself was not covered by attorney-client or work product privilege. The only violation that occurred was the judge’s violation of the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct.”

While the Fulton district attorney’s office won’t be weighing in on the merits and had yet to file a brief on the issue as of Wednesday afternoon, it said in its letter it felt “compelled to note” Steel’s “gloss” on what went down in Judge Glanville’s chambers.

“The state cautions against any language within this honorable court’s ultimate decision of this appeal which the defendants in the ongoing criminal trial below might interpret as being binding on that criminal case itself through the law of the case doctrine,” the office added.

Steel is represented by Colette Resnik Steel of the Steel Law Firm PC, Ashleigh Merchant of the Merchant Law Firm PC, Alex Susor of the Law Offices of Alex Susor PC, Leigh Ann Webster of Strickland Webster LLC and Lynsey Barron of Barron Law LLC.

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office is represented by its own Fani T. Willis and Kevin Armstrong.

The American Board of Criminal Lawyers is represented by Edward Tolley of Cook & Tolley LLP and Don Samuel and Amanda Clark Palmer of Garland Samuel & Loeb PC.

The case is Brian Steel v. State of Georgia, S24A1245, in the Supreme Court of Georgia.

—Editing by Dave Trumbore and Orlando Lorenzo.