Defense attorneys in Young Thug’s slow-moving trial said they are outraged again after learning of another secret meeting between Fulton County prosecutors and the case’s former judge involving a reluctant state witness.
The lawyers were handed a copy of the June 7 meeting transcript as court wrapped up Tuesday, hours after the new judge, Paige Reese Whitaker, asked everyone involved to disclose any ex-parte meetings they had with Chief Judge Ural Glanville.
Glanville was removed from the longest trial in Georgia history over his handling of multiple recusal motions that attorneys filed following a secret June 10 meeting he had with prosecutors and their star witness, Kenneth Copeland. But defense attorneys said they just learned of a another meeting between Glanville and the state that was apparently held three days earlier, just hours after Copeland was held in contempt and jailed for refusing to testify.
“A reading of the rough transcript highlights that which has been obvious to all observers,” wrote attorney Doug Weinstein, who represents Deamonte Kendrick. “Judge Glanville has been willfully biased and acting as a member of the prosecution team since the inception of this case.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
In an addendum to his earlier motion seeking a mistrial 19 months into the case, Weinstein on Wednesday accused the prosecutors and former judge of gossiping “like yentas” about some of the defense attorneys in the case.
He argued the cards have been stacked against the defendants since the beginning, and said the only remedy is for the new judge is to declare a mistrial and bar the state from retrying the case.
There are still two mistrial motions pending, but it’s unclear when Whitaker might decide whether to declare a mistrial or continue with the case. Court is set to resume Friday morning.
In a transcript of the June 7 meeting which Weinstein attached to his filing, Glanville and prosecutors Adriane Love and Simone Hylton discussed Copeland’s attorney, Jonathan Melnick.
Love brought up an email exchange she had with Melnick in which he accused the state of endangering his client by forcing him to testify
”I believe Mr. Melnick has inserted himself in a way that jeopardizes the best interest of our witness,” Love told Judge Glanville, according to the transcript.
Melnick was out of town the following week and had attorney Kayla Bumpus stand in to represent Copeland.
Love and Hylton raised concerns that Bumpus had been seen in court hugging at least two of the defendants — Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, and Deamonte Kendrick. Copeland was expected to testify against both.
“That is where we are. That doesn’t pass a smell test,” Love said in the meeting.
Attorney Max Schardt, who represents Shannon Stillwell, sounded off in court on Wednesday, saying neither Glanville nor the two prosecutors ever mentioned the earlier meeting when they were confronted by defense counsel about the one held on June 10.
“The state and their co-conspirator, the trial court, were silent about the meeting,” Schardt said. “Nothing about this is OK.”
Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC
Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC
He said his client and the other defendants should have been entitled to a fair and impartial judge from the beginning, not now, starting at witness No. 76.
“The judge presumed the guilt of all defendants ... This is not OK” Schardt said, telling Whitaker that all of Glanville’s previous rulings should be revisited.
Whitaker said she understood why some of the defense attorneys were upset, but didn’t think everything they said was a “fair characterization” of the June 7 meeting.
“The transcript will reflect what was actually said in there and there are some allegations that if I were an attorney and they were levied against me ... I would be a little hot under the collar as well,” she said.
Weinstein likened the high-profile gang and racketeering trial to “an old house” that Whitaker is tasked with renovating.
“Every time a piece of pasted-up wallpaper is removed more rot is found hidden underneath,” he wrote. “No herculean effort by the present court can fix the due process violations of the last judge. This house must be torn down. A mistrial should be declared and retrial barred due to prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
