The judge presiding over Young Thug’s lengthy gang and racketeering trial on Monday released the transcript of a secret meeting he held in chambers last month with Fulton County prosecutors and a key state’s witness.
Prosecutors told witness Kenneth Copeland in the June 10 meeting that if he refused to testify, he could be jailed until defendants all have their cases adjudicated, a process that could take years.
Outraged defense attorneys said they were excluded from the meeting and accused Chief Judge Ural Glanville of colluding with prosecutors to coerce the witness. When confronted about the meeting, Glanville held Young Thug’s attorney Brian Steel in contempt for refusing to disclose how he learned about it.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Two of those attorneys sought Glanville’s recusal, and the judge announced Monday that all proceedings are halted until another judge determines whether he should remain on the case.
Glanville said the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office requested the meeting, held in his chambers, but did not give him a subject matter. The judge’s court reporter was present for the meeting, and according to the transcript created, prosecutor Adriane Love raised concerns about Copeland’s understanding of an immunity agreement offered in exchange for his testimony.
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
Copeland on June 7 was held in contempt and jailed for refusing to answer prosecutors’ questions. At the time, Copeland said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. (After a weekend behind bars, he did testify).
Love explained in the meeting that she had received an email from Copeland’s attorney, John Melnick, accusing prosecutors of endangering Copeland by forcing him to testify.
“You are going to get him killed. You have made him, you are making him a target,” Melnick wrote, according to Love in the transcript. “F--- you.”
Melnick was out of town during the meeting, and had sent another attorney, Kayla Bumpus, to represent Copeland.
Bumpus asked how long Copeland could be held in custody for if he refused to testify. Both Love and Glanville told her it could be a long time.
“He could be in there a while, let’s put it that way,” Glanville told Bumpus, according to the transcript.
The judge said Copeland could return home that evening by agreeing to testify.
“He has the keys to his own freedom,” Glanville told the attorney, according to the transcript.
Bumpus told them there was a chance that Melnick would no longer represent Copeland if he agreed to testify.
Love and Glanville told Bumpus that she might have to stay until Copeland’s testimony was over, which they acknowledged wasn’t fair to her because she was just standing in for the other attorney.
“Ultimately, it seems as if Mr. Melnick is stalling and attempting to delay and hamper and hinder our proceedings, and that is a problem because that has nothing to do with the best interest of Kenneth Copeland, and that has nothing to do with Kenneth Copeland’s exposure, if he testifies,” Love said.
Bumpus clarified that Copeland might be worried about testifying for other reasons, including his personal safety.
“We ain’t gonna kill him ... We’re not going to kill Kenneth Copeland,” Love said, in response to the concerns raised about his safety.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Glanville said that Copeland getting hurt could be “a collateral second and third-order effect,” according to the transcript. “Let’s pray it doesn’t happen, but ... first he has to give testimony,” the judge said.
Nearly an hour into the meeting, Copeland was brought into chambers and Glanville told him they wanted to give him the chance to ask questions and clear up any confusion before he was brought out to testify.
Copeland told the judge he “had never been truthful a day in his life” and said he didn’t understand everything that was happening. ADA Simone Hylton told Copeland that he was immune from any prosecution based on his testimony, according to the transcript.
She also said that if Copeland feared for his safety, there were things the state could do to protect him. But she said prosecutors did not want him behind bars during his testimony.
But she said if he continued to plead the Fifth, he could remain in jail until the case was over. Glanville told Copeland he would have been allowed to plead the Fifth had the state not offered him immunity.
“What the state decided is they said your testimony is worth more to them at this point in time and they really want to know what you have to say,” Glanville said.
The meeting ended with a discussion about Copeland’s wardrobe. At the time, he was wearing a jail-issued jumpsuit, which Copeland said he wanted to wear in front of the jury.
“Y’all don’t want to show the people how you all did me?” he asked. “I prefer to go in like this.”
He testified that day wearing his jail clothes.
