BEST YSL Woody Trial Breakdown. MUST SEE.

As the Young Thug YSL RICO trial entered its 3rd month, the prosecution called one of its primary witnesses, Kenneth “Woody” Copeland, to the stand. Copeland had previously given a statement to detectives relating to the murder of a rival, Donovan “Big Nutt” Thomas in 2015, and prosecutors hoped that calling Copeland to the stand would help implicate defendant Jeffrey “Young Thug” Williams. But things would not go according to the prosecution’s plan.
Despite his previous statements to investigators, after calling Copeland to the stand, it became clear that he no longer wished to cooperate with the prosecution. Copeland pleaded the fifth even for basic questions, refusing to give prosecutors the information they desired. Copeland’s decision not to cooperate prompted judge Ural Glanville to remind Copeland that the government had given Copeland a special kind of immunity called “use” immunity. With “use” immunity prosecutors cannot use any information Copeland supplies during the YSL trial against him in any future trial. In exchange for this, prosecutors expect Copeland to cooperate with them and testify against the other YSL defendants.
With Copeland pleading the fifth, judge Glanville reminded Copeland of his immunity and informed him that if he did not testify, he would be thrown in jail. Copeland continued to refuse to testify and spent the first weekend of June in jail.
After spending the weekend in detention, On Monday, June 10, 2024, Copeland was back in court. This is where the trial took an unexpected turn. On Monday morning Copeland, the prosecutor, and Judge Glanville had a secret meeting in the judge’s chambers, after which Copeland emerged ready to testify.
Young Thug’s defense attorney, Brian Steel, discovered that the judge had conducted the ex parte meeting with the prosecutor and Copeland, which is not usually allowed. Usually, in such important meetings involving a sworn witness, all sides would have the opportunity to be present in order to have their interests represented.
Steel called out the ex parte meeting in open court and the judge confirmed it. Steel demanded to know why he had not been included in the meeting and said the meeting violated the Georgia constitution. Judge Glanville demanded that Steel disclose how he learned of the meeting. The two argued in court and Glanville said he would jail Steel for contempt if he did not reveal his source.
Steel repeatedly asked the judge to clarify why the defense was not included in the meeting. Judge Glanville refused to answer Steel’s question but instead insisted that the defense disclose how it found out about the meeting. Neither side budged. Judge Glanville ordered Steel jailed. Before leaving the court, Steel asked for a motion for mistrial based on the ex par-tay meeting. Judge Glanville denied and jailed Steel.
In a sign of solidarity with his client, attorney Steel asked if he could serve his jail time with his client Young Thug, who is also in jail as the trial proceeds. The attorney said that, due to the confinement, he would not be free to properly prepare for the trial, and that if he and his client were jailed together, he could make the best out of a bad situation.
Judge Glanville agreed to allow attorney Steele to serve his 20-day sentence with his client over 10 weekends, allowing him to be free during the week to continue working the YSL RICO case.
Despite judge Glanville’s order, Steel will not have to continue serving his sentence, at least for the time being. The Georgia Supreme Court agreed to stay the 20-day jail sentence, pending the outcome of an appeal that attorney Steel is filing against Judge Glanville’s contempt of court ruling.
Following the jailing, lawyers for rapper Young Thug filed a motion for Judge Glanville to recuse himself from the case.
Interestingly, it is not a separate and independent body that decides if the judge must leave the case. Instead, the judge himself reviews the motion to recuse himself, and then decides whether he thinks he should step down. Put simply, the judge is judging himself.
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Judge Glanville argues that though the defense attorneys do not like the rulings he is making, that is not a reason for a judge to remove himself from a case. Glanville argues that in order to have him recuse himself, he would have to have done something extrajudicial, outside of the accepted bounds of the legal process.
Now, back to YSL Woody Copeland and his testimony
Following the drama that resulted in Young Thug’s lawyer getting thrown in jail, Woody decided to fire his attorney.

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