ATLANTA — It has been 18 months since the Young Slime Life RICO trial started inside the Fulton County Courthouse.
Aside from the length of the trial, the case has been filled with drama.
One of the latest issues is Young Thug's defense attorney, Brian Steel, being arrested and subsequently sentenced for contempt of court.
“I'll tell you what. I'm going to give you 5 minutes. If you don't tell me who it is, I'm going to put you in contempt," Judge Ural Glanville said.
On Monday, Judge Glanville held Young Thug’s attorney in contempt, sentencing him to 10 weekends behind bars for refusing to share how he learned about a meeting between the judge, prosecution and a key witness.
However, on Wednesday, the state supreme court stepped in and stayed that sentence.
A fellow attorney on the case, Douglas Weinstein, who represents Deomontre Kendrick, thinks the ruling and the sentence shouldn’t be the central focus.
“What happened on Monday with Brian Steel is in some way a distraction to the bigger issue, which is this ex parte meeting. This meeting that was held with the prosecutors and the judge without our knowledge,” Weinstein said.
The high court’s ruling temporarily suspends Steel’s sentence while his appeal of the contempt ruling is considered.
On Thursday, in court, defense lawyers asked Judge Glanville to consider a motion for a mistrial because of the meeting they say they were not informed of -- and because of what they allege is witness intimidation and coercion.
“So it just concerns me that there seems to be this effort to pressure and intimidate this witness,” Weinstein. said.
Prosecutors disputed such claims, and Glanville denied the latest motion from defense attorneys for a mistrial.
The trial is currently the longest ever in Georgia’s history.