The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A state’s witness, judge have a heated exchange
After days of testimony, he accuses attorneys of ‘trying to assassinate’ him.
A state’s witness in the lengthy “Young Slime Life” trial on Friday morning told attorneys and the judge that he has lost his job and is receiving harassing phone calls after his number was revealed in court.
Adrian Bean has been on stand since Feb. 29 as Fulton prosecutors focus on a September 2013 police shooting and car crash at a south Atlanta apartment complex.
Bean acknowledged in a recorded interview last year with Young Thug’s attorney, Brian Steel, that he was the driver of a Nissan sedan that fled from police, rolled off an embankment and slammed into a laundromat. But he has spent days on the stand telling lead prosecutor Adriane Love that he doesn’t recall much from 11 ½ years ago.
“I don’t remember nothing from 2013, I keep telling y’all that,” Bean said as defense attorneys prepared to play portions of his recorded interview for the jury. “Y’all got my name on a recorder, my phone number on a recorder. These people are threatening me. They’re calling my phone, your honor. I done lost my job. I got a lot going on ... I can’t continue to keep going on like this.”
Bean accused attorneys of “trying to assassinate” him before repeatedly asking the judge if he was the one on trial.
“No sir, you are not on trial,” Judge Ural Glanville said. “But you have been properly summoned here as a witness and you’re subject to examination until I release you.”
The heated exchange came one day after tempers flared during a spirited back-and-forth between attorneys outside the presence of the jury.
On Thursday, what was supposed to be a series of relatively quick motions hearings ended up lasting the entire day as Love and the defense counsel accused one another of repeatedly talking over each other and acting unprofessionally. At one point, a courtroom deputy stepped in and told both sides to cool off.
The exchange occurred after Glanville agreed to suppress a police interview that defendant Deamonte Kendrick gave detectives after asking for an attorney.
Love continued to argue her point after Glanville had ruled, which apparently didn’t sit well with the judge.
“You continue to engage in this pattern of behavior,” Glanville told her. “You don’t want to accept my ruling, and I know you’re trying to be an advocate, but at some point just stop. Just stop, I made my ruling.”
Kendrick’s attorney, Doug Weinstein, acknowledged speaking over the prosecutor, but said, “the state could talk the ears off a donkey.”
“This continued filibustering has got to stop so that opposing counsel can speak,” he said.
Later in the afternoon, Love and Steel butted heads over Bean’s ongoing testimony and which questions are permissible on cross-examination.
“That’s not the way we treat each other as professional colleagues,” Glanville reminded them.
Atlanta rapper Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, is standing trial on gang and racketeering charges alongside five co-defendants. Prosecutors allege the chart-topping musician is a co-founder and leader of YSL, which prosecutors contend is a Bloods-affiliated street gang formed along Cleveland Avenue.
Williams’ attorneys deny the allegations and maintain their client is innocent.
One of the trial jurors raised concerns Friday about her employer not renewing her contract. Juror 213 told Glanville that her contract is “on hold,” but couldn’t say for certain whether that was related to her involvement in the slow-moving trial.
Glanville told her that employers are prohibited from taking “adverse action” against someone because of jury duty and offered to contact her boss. The judge also said he would delay court on Monday so she could interview for a different position.