Ural Glanville

Fulton County Chief Judge Ural Glanville held a private, one-sided meeting with two prosecutors and a jailed prosecution witness — without any defense attorney present or even informed it was happening — during the high-profile YSL/Young Thug racketeering trial. The witness, Kenneth Copeland, had been jailed days earlier for refusing to testify. When defense attorney Brian Steel learned about the secret meeting and told the court about it in open proceedings, Glanville demanded Steel reveal how he'd found out. Steel refused. Glanville held him in contempt and sentenced him to 20 days in jail — using his own contempt power against the attorney who had raised a concern about the judge's own conduct. A different judge reviewing the matter, Rachel Krause, removed Glanville from the case — stating she didn't find the meeting itself improper, but ordered his recusal anyway "to preserve public trust." The Georgia Supreme Court later went further, reversing the contempt order against Steel entirely and ruling that Glanville should have stepped aside and let another judge decide Steel's fate rather than ruling on it himself.