Fulton County prosecutors won’t participate in the appeal by Young Thug’s lead attorney of his jail sentence for contempt of court, unless directed to by the Georgia Supreme Court.
District Attorney Fani Willis and her deputy Kevin Armstrong told the state Supreme Court on Tuesday that they’re not taking a position in the appeal by Brian Steel, who was held in contempt and sentenced to 20 days in jail on June 10 after a testy exchange with Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville.
“Although it is criminal in nature, this is not an appeal from a criminal conviction in which the State of Georgia acted as prosecutor,” Willis and Armstrong said in a court filing. “The State of Georgia announces that it does not view itself as a party in interest to the current appeal.”
The lack of opposition to Steel’s appeal could make it easier for him to avoid spending time behind bars.
Steel represents rapper Young Thug in what has become the longest trial in Georgia’s history. He had raised concerns about Glanville’s closed-door meeting with prosecutors and their star witness, Kenneth Copeland, who initially refused to testify.
Glanville ordered Steel to reveal how he learned of the meeting and punished the attorney for refusing to do so, in a move that enraged many prominent Atlanta lawyers who said Steel was simply doing his job.
Glanville’s ardent defense of the in-chambers meeting and refusal in its wake to recuse himself ultimately saw him kicked off the case, which has continued at a snail’s pace before Judge Paige Reese Whitaker.
Prosecutors from Willis’ office argued in July that it was appropriate for Steel and the other defense lawyers in the trial to be excluded from the meeting. Steel had accused Glanville of siding with the prosecutors and argued that they should also be replaced.
On Tuesday, Willis and Armstrong said the lawfulness of the meeting and related matters raised by Steel in his attempt to overturn his jail sentence were irrelevant. They cautioned the state Supreme Court against including in its ultimate decision any language that Steel and the other defense lawyers could interpret as binding on the gang and racketeering case against Young Thug and his alleged “YSL” associates.
Issues, including whether prosecutors and Glanville engaged in misconduct and why Glanville was recused, are specifically relevant to the YSL case and do not need to be decided in Steel’s appeal against the state, Willis and Armstrong said. They said information related to those topics is “not adequately or fully included in the understandably limited record on appeal for this collateral matter.”
The state Supreme Court is due to hear arguments in the appeal on Oct. 22.
Alex Susor, an attorney for Steel, said prosecutors’ neutral stance in the appeal was expected. He said Steel has a strong case and that “the proper remedy is for the Georgia Supreme Court to overturn Brian’s contempt conviction and his good name to be cleared of any wrongdoing.”
Susor said he personally believes that Glanville’s conduct after the June 10 in-chambers meeting was “one of the most concerning abuses of judicial authority I’ve ever seen in my almost 18 years as a practicing criminal defense lawyer.” He said it’s no surprise that prosecutors are distancing themselves from the contempt matter.
“My personal opinion, not speaking for Brian or the other defense attorneys on his legal team, is that no one wants to touch this mess with a 10-foot pole,” Susor said Wednesday.
“Judge Glanville’s aggressive demeanor and unwillingness to listen to well-reasoned legal and factual arguments from the defense throughout the entirety of this contempt drama was highly inappropriate and was the polar opposite of what we as citizens should expect from a professional jurist, let alone the Chief Judge of the Superior Court of Fulton County.”
As the YSL trial drags on, prosecutors are expected to call an additional 100 witnesses in coming months. Only four witnesses have testified since Glanville’s July 15 recusal, including Copeland and former defendant Antonio Sledge.
— AJC staff writer Jozsef Papp contributed to this article.
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