OK. For those keeping score at home:
The judge in the RICO case that Fanni Willis's office brought against Young Thug just jailed a defense lawyer for not disclosing how he learned about a meeting that the judge and prosecutors had with a sworn-in meeting that defense lawyers were not told about.
lemme break it down
so the judge had an ex-parte meeting with a witness and the prosecution without informing the defense. this, in layman's terms, is a no-no.
the defense found out about this meeting and asked, on the record in open court, (paraphrased) "qu'est-ce que le fuck?"
the judge said "wait how did you hear about this totally secret meeting in which nothing untoward happened but you never should have heard about it"
(KT note: throughout, the judge refers to the witness as "a party," which ummmmm)
defense says "I can't tell you"
judge says "can't or won't"
defense says "well, both, I guess? the rules of professional conduct say I can't, so I'm saying I won't"
judge says "ok but you have to"
defense says "respectfully, your honor, fuck you" (paraphrased)
judge says "I'm holding you in contempt unless you tell me how you got this info you never should have had"
defense yelps "the fuck?! It's insane that you didn't tell me ahead of time yourself!!"
judge: "no it's cool bc we had a transcript taken"
co-defense: yo can I get a copy of that
judge: no
defense: okay well this is fucko bazoo, your honor, and we --
judge: give me the name
defense: -- we move for a mis--
judge: THE NAME
defense: -- we move for a mistrial on the grounds that --
judge: THE NAME, MOTHERFUCKER
(all paraphrased)
defense: I'm not gonna tell you. This whole thing is huffing paint.
judge: I am literally hauling you off in handcuffs right now, or anyway telling the bailiff to do it.
defense, getting fainter as he's dragged off: i move for a mistrial on the basis of denial of choice of counsel!!
judge: well anyway that was --
new lawyer: HI NO DON'T SAY ANYTHING ELSE I REPRESENT THAT GUY YOU JUST DRAGGED OUT
judge: oh here we go
new lawyer: your honor, respectfully, you fucked this all the way up
judge: oh I did, did I? How's that exactly?
new lawyer: you have to give him a supersedeas bond so he can keep representing his client while he appeals this
judge: that's for civil contempt not criminal
new lawyer: if this is criminal contempt you have to sentence him you can't just oubliette him
judge: he can get out any time he wants by giving me what i want, that's how he purges the contempt
new lawyer: that's civil contempt not criminal contempt
judge: you're confusing direct vs. indirect with civil vs. criminal
new lawyer: no u
judge: oh hmmmm let me go think for 5 min
There's going to be hell to pay over this when it's all done and right now he's almost certainly looking for some way to ensure he isn't the one who gets to pay.
That's not a particularly new idea. Many organizations of criminal defense lawyers use a "strike force" as a selling point. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, for example, has one as does the local WI organization (WACDL).
And if you read the recently filed motion to the appellate court for supersedeas bond, you will see it was the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers that responded to the “bat signal.”
s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24...
My theory is that tomorrow, we discover that the judge had a stroke or something and is in the hospital.
The only other way out is to get abducted by aliens.
No, it continued and concluded, the defense lawyer is not in jail for the next 10 weekends, the judge decided that the defense counsel doesn't get to know anything about the ex parte on-the-record meeting, and I suspect there are a *bunch* of lawyers writing up filings still.
Criminal contempt is punitive, for when someone does something like start shouting obscenities in court.
Civil contempt is coercive - it's "We're going to jail or fine you until you cooperate."
In this case, the judge explicitly called it criminal contempt, but "purging" is for civil.
I guess that was a while ago. The judge had the defense lawyer in question removed from the courtroom . Eventually the *prosecutor* said he should be allowed in while the court is in session so the defendant would be properly represented.
