Young Thug RICO Trial: Lawyers Ask Georgia Supreme Court to Force Judge’s Recusal

Defense lawyers in the Young Thug racketeering conspiracy trial filed an emergency petition Thursday asking Georgia’s Supreme Court to step in and force Fulton County Chief Judge Ural Glanville to let an “unbiased judge” decide whether he should step down from the high-profile case now underway in Atlanta.

Filed by lawyers representing Young Thug’s co-defendant and fellow rapper Yak Gotti, the 26-page petition claims Judge Glanville committed “judicial misconduct” and violated Yak Gotti’s constitutional right to a fair trial when he held a secret meeting with prosecutors and a key witness without alerting the defense. The witness, Kenneth Copeland, had been sworn in for live testimony in front of the jury on Friday, June 7, but was taken into custody and spent the weekend in jail when Judge Glanville found him in contempt for refusing to answer questions after signing an immunity deal. The secret meeting on the morning of Monday, June 10, led into Copeland’s return to the witness stand.

In their filing on Thursday, defense lawyers Douglas Weinstein, Jay Abt, and Katie Hingerty argue that “troubling facts” about the secret meeting “implicate” Judge Glanville in a joint effort to “coerce Copeland to testify.” They allege the judge and prosecutors engaged in an “effort to join forces” to get Copeland back on the witness stand under threat of returning to jail “indefinitely.”

“The only logical conclusion for the secret nature of the proceeding was to give Glanville in conjunction with the State the unfettered ability to harass and intimidate the sworn witness into testifying,” the lawyers argue in the motion. They go on to say defense lawyers have a right to the full transcript of the meeting since Copeland may have said things that could be used to undermine his credibility on cross-examination.

Copeland is a key witness in the case, because he had access to an Infiniti sedan that allegedly was rented by Young Thug and was later linked to the 2015 murder of Donovan “Nut” Thomas Jr. outside a barbershop in Atlanta. Yak Gotti, whose legal name is Deamonte Kendrick, is specifically charged with Thomas’ murder alongside fellow defendant Shannon Stillwell. Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffery Williams, was indicted on an overarching count of racketeering conspiracy, with Thomas’ drive-by shooting death as an overt act carried out in furtherance of the alleged gang conspiracy.

According to the petition filed Thursday, Kendrick’s lawyers say they “learned” from an unidentified source that Judge Glanville informed Copeland during the secret meeting that he could keep Copeland incarcerated until all 27 remaining defendants charged under the indictment conclude trial — not just the six defendants currently facing jurors in what’s now the longest criminal trial in Georgia state history.

The defense lawyers further claim they believe Copeland said during the secret meeting that he would “simply lie on the stand” if forced to return and that he would testify he killed Thomas. The defense lawyers say such statements amount to important material they have a right to use as defense evidence. They go on to fault Judge Glanville for finding Williams’ defense lawyer Brian Steel in contempt when he confronted the court about the secret meeting on June 10 and refused to divulge how he learned about it.

“It is apparent that Glanville has made every effort to keep the proceeding a secret and inaccessible to defense counsel – going so far as to hold Steel in criminal contempt for refusing to provide the name of our source,” Weinstein and his co-counsel write. They argue that a stay of the proceedings and immediate relief is necessary “because the witness that was coerced by Glanville is presently on the witness stand. Absent emergency relief from this court in some form, Glanville will control the scope and substance of undersigned counsels’ cross examination of Copeland.”

A spokesperson for the Fulton County Superior Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Rolling Stone sent Thursday. Prosecutors also did not respond to an email seeking comment on the emergency petition. Judge Glanville previously denied three separate recusal motions filed in his courtroom, including one from Kendrick’s lawyers and one from Steel. He said an appeals court could look at his denials after the trial concludes.

Williams, Kendrick, and four others deny the charges against them and are expected to be on trial through the end of the year. Prosecutors already have called more than 70 witnesses in the frequently delayed proceeding, but that’s still not half of the names on their list. Steel previously called the case against his client “unconscionable and unconstitutional.”