The judge presiding over Young Thug‘s lengthy gang and racketeering trial halted court proceedings Monday until another judge can decide whether he should remain on the case.
Several defense attorneys asked that Fulton County Chief Judge Ural Glanville be recused following a private June 10 meeting between the judge, prosecutors and state’s witness Kenneth Copeland.
The attorneys called the judge’s conduct improper, contending they had a right to be present for the meeting held in Glanville’s chambers. They also accused the judge and prosecutors of coercing the reluctant Copeland into testifying by threatening him with indefinite jail time if he refused.
Jury selection began in January 2023 and opening statements followed in November 2023; it is the longest in Georgia’s history.
Glanville said he would release a transcript of the meeting to attorneys but argued his actions last month were proper.
“The court is of the opinion, based on the case law, that this was a proper ex parte meeting,” Glanville said during a hearing held outside the presence of the jury.
He said the prosecution requested the meeting with Copeland, to discuss the immunity agreement offered to Copeland in exchange for his testimony.
“The only thing discussed between the state and counsel for Mr. Copeland and this court was the understanding of his immunity agreement,” Glanville said. “There was no other testimonial statements, in terms of what Mr. Copeland planned to testify to.”
The judge faced major backlash last month when he held Young Thug’s prominent defense attorney, Brian Steel, in contempt for refusing to divulge how he learned of the secret meeting. Steel had asked the judge about it after learning about it during a lunch break.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
When Steel refused to disclose his source, Glanville sentenced him to 20 days behind bars, to be served over 10 consecutive weekends. That was stayed by the Georgia Supreme Court.
Multiple motions were filed seeking Glanville’s recusal, and attorney Doug Weinstein filed an emergency petition with the State Supreme Court asking that it decide whether Glanville should remain on the case.
The high court denied that petition last week, ruling it needed to be filed in Fulton County first and heard by a judge there.
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
Attorney Scott Grubman, who has closely watched the trial, said Glanville should have set the case aside last month when the recusal motions were filed.
“Not only is it the right move, but it’s the move that was required from the beginning,” Grubman said, citing the rules governing Georgia’s Superior Courts.
He also said Glanville’s justification for holding the secret meeting was “absolute nonsense,” saying such meetings are only authorized for scheduling purposes, administrative issues or emergencies that do not deal with substantive matters of a trial.
“The problem is he wasn’t thinking,” Grubman said of Glanville, adding that the defense attorneys should have been notified immediately of the private discussion. “That’s not what happened here. He didn’t notify anyone. He was caught. And when he was caught, he tried to send the lawyer who caught him to jail.”
Credit: Court video
Credit: Court video
Grubman said he thinks Glanville should be recused from the case, that a mistrial should be granted, and that the defendants who aren’t already serving prison sentences should be released from jail until District Attorney Fani Willis decides whether to retry them.
That includes Young Thug, the chart-topping Atlanta rapper who has now spent more than two years behind bars in the prime of his career, Grubman said.
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Credit: Steve Schaefer
“It’s not just (Glanville’s) misconduct, it’s the effect that his misconduct has had on the integrity of the judicial system,” Grubman said. “This is beyond the scope of anything I thought I’d see from a superior court judge.”
Chuck Boring, the former director of Georgia’s Judicial Qualifications Commission, said Glanville was right to follow the Georgia Supreme Court’s instruction and finally let another judge handle the recusal motion.
“I think Judge Glanville wisely, for the future of that case, whichever way it goes, sent it somewhere so there’s no question about the objectivity of the person determining the recusal issue,” Boring said.
The recusal motion has been assigned to Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause, Fulton’s clerk of courts said Monday night. On Tuesday, Krause issued her first order in the case requiring prosecutors to submit a written response to the pending recusal motions before 5 p.m. Monday July 8.
“Time is of the essence given that a jury trial is currently paused pending resolution of these recusal motions,” Krause wrote in the order.
The order was issued just minutes after Weinstein filed a motion asking for all Fulton County Superior Court judges to recuse themselves from handling the Glanville’s recusal motions and that the motions are heard by a judge outside of Fulton County.
“To avoid even the appearance of impropriety, Judge Krause and any other Judge within Fulton County should recuse from hearing Kendrick’s recusal motion,” the motion reads.
Prosecutor Simone Hylton asked how long the motion to recuse might take to be heard and whether there was any way to expedite the process. Glanville said the matter is out of his hands.
“Don’t know. That has to go to another judge pursuant to our rules,” Glanville said. “That’s not within my information and purview … Hopefully it will get done fairly quickly.”
Defense attorney Suri Chadha Jimenez, who was previously involved in the case, said the trial’s timeline is now unknown.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with this trial,” Chadha Jimenez said. “It’s probably going to take weeks for somebody to even look at this motion and properly hash it out.”
Glanville said they would notify the jury of the extended recess. For the past two weeks, jurors have been off as attorneys discussed redactions to Copeland’s police interrogation videos.
Boring said if Glanville is recused and a mistrial is granted, prosecutors may have to start the entire process over.
“If a judge rules that Glanville needs to recuse, ordinarily with a case that was not very lengthy, you could have another judge that would, if it was in the midst of trial, take over,” Boring said. “However, this is case is out of the ordinary.”
Grubman said the judge ruling on the recusal will likely remove Glanville from the case, especially if they know the Georgia Supreme Court is watching.
“They’re watching this, and if the new judge gets this wrong, it’s going right back up to the Supreme Court to make a decision,” Grubman said. “I don’t think whoever the new judge is will want to get involved in this mess that Judge Glanville has created for himself.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
