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Young Thug‘s attorney Brian Steel will no longer have a contempt of court order on his record, thanks to the Georgia Supreme Court.
On Tuesday (October 22), the Supreme Court of Georgia decided to overturn the judgement against Steel. The lawyer was held in contempt during Thug’s RICO trial back in June when confronted the case’s then-judge Ural Glanville about a private conversation reportedly held between Glanville, prosecutors and one of the state’s star witnesses before court that morning.
When questioned by the judge about how he learned of the meeting, Steel refused to share his source and was escorted out of the courtroom.
“You got some information you shouldn’t have gotten,” Glanville said to Steel before directing courtroom deputies to take him into custody.
Steel was initially sentenced to 20 days in jail (to be served over 10 weekends), but ultimately managed to avoid being behind bars, as he was granted bond while his appeal played out.
That appeal decision in Steel’s favor said that the lawyer “was entitled to have the matter heard by a different judge… The exchange between Steel and Judge Glanville makes clear that Judge Glanville was involved in the controversy. For these reasons, a different judge should have presided over the contempt hearing, and the failure to do so requires reversal.”
Brian Steel’s row with Judge Glanville began, as mentioned, after the attorney found out about a private meeting between the judge, the prosecution and a witness.
Steel told the judge that he’s “not supposed to have communication with a witness who’s been sworn” in reference to Kenneth Copeland, who spent the weekend in jail after refusing to testify on Friday (June 7) despite having an immunity deal that is contingent on his testimony.
Steel refused to tell the judge who had told him about the meeting and in a dramatic scene, the judge had the lawyer arrested, all of which was caught on a courtroom livestream.
“You can purge that contempt just by telling who it is that told you that information. That’s all I need to know,” Glanville said to Steel, who refused to name names based on a duty of confidentiality.
