Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Lil' Woody's Ex-Lawyer Breaks Silence on Young Thug Contempt Controversy

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Attorney Kayla Bumpus represented Kenneth "Lil' Woody" Copeland for one day during an ex parte meeting in Judge Ural Glanville's chambers. The meeting occurred after Copeland invoked his 5th Amendment privilege on the stand during the RICO trial of Jeffrey Williams, the rapper known as Young Thug. Judge Glanville implied that Bumpus may have told Williams' attorney, Brian Steel, about the meeting and violated attorney-client privilege. Glanville held Steel in contempt when he refused to disclose his source. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with Kayla Bumpus about the allegation and the possibility she and others could be held in contempt in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Kayla Bumpus https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayla-bumpus-esq-96b398104/ CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Mr. Steele, I am going to hold you under, still hold you in summary criminal contempt. Young thugs lawyer Brian Steele held in contempt after he refused to reveal information to Judge Glanville about a meeting in his chambers. Now an attorney who has become the center of this controversy is here to tell her side of the story. Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Kayla Bumpus is a defense attorney in Fulton County, Georgia. Earlier this month, she represented Kenneth Copeland, who goes by Little

Woody, in a meeting in Judge Glanville's chambers. It was a Monday morning, and the Friday before, Little Woody had basically refused to testify against Young Thug. And Mr. Copeland, good afternoon. Do you want to be here? Ma'am? Do you want to be here? I'm here. Okay. Are you going to let me ask you some questions?

Okay. How old are you? Grown. Okay. What does grown mean? I'm an adult. Okay, and when you say you're an adult, what number in years are you? I plead the fifth. Now, Little Woody is considered the state's star witness in the Young Thug Rico case. The following Monday, Copeland was summoned to Judge Glanville's chambers, and attorney Kayla Bumpus was asked to represent him for that meeting. Brian Steele wasn't present for that meeting. He wasn't invited.

But documents filed by Kayla Bumpus's attorney say that she was there, along with prosecutors, court staff, security staff, and deputies, the court reporter, and two investigators with the DA's office. But Brian Steele, as we've shown you, found out about the meeting even though he wasn't there. How did you get that information supposedly from my chambers? Did somebody tell you? I'm not. You should have told me. You got five minutes. To be clear, Assistant District Attorney Adrian Love says nothing improper happened with this meeting. We certainly have the right to request ex parte communications. That's why we asked that the

court reporter be present. This is a matter that the defendants did not have a right to be a part of, as this was a matter regarding a civil contempt that the court imposed upon a person for not obeying the court's directive. Judge Glanville was furious that Brian Steele found out about this meeting because it was in his chambers and he didn't think he should have known about it. He held Brian Steele in contempt after he refused to say who told him about the meeting and he ordered him to jail. That's on hold for now as Steele appeals. Glanville also said he believed who knew who told Steele about the meeting. I'm not asking you what was said. You've already kind of given us some snippets of what you said.

That tells me that somebody parroted that information to you. But you're assuming something because I told you already. Well, then, other than if you were sitting in there with a recorder, or Ms. Love, or Ms. Hilton, or one of the deputies gave you that information or Ms. Weaver shot you a rough copy of the transcript, there's only one other person that's left. Well, Your Honor. And if that person gave you that information or shared that information with you,

she probably violated privilege. Well, let me tell you two things. One, I don't know how that is a privileged communication. The judge issued an order to show cause as to why everyone present for that ex parte meeting shouldn't be held in contempt. The order specifically, though, named Kenneth Little Woody Copeland and Kayla Bumpus. Kayla Bumpus is asking to quash the show cause order and for Judge Glanville to recuse himself from these proceedings. In it, Bumpus's lawyers outline what happened during the meeting, stating,

the court asked Copeland whether he was prepared to testify. Copeland announced that he planned to again invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege on the stand. The motion goes on to say that a conversation ensued regarding Copeland's understanding of immunity, how Copeland thought he might testify if he pleaded the fifth, and certain facts of the case. Once Copeland learned that he could be held indefinitely, not just two years as he initially believed, Copeland decided that he would testify. Copeland added, according to the documents, that his testimony would all be a lie. One point that Kayla Bumpus' lawyers make in her motion to quash the show cause order,

the meeting, according to her, was not placed under seal and there was no protective order issued barring the release of the information about that meeting. And Bumpus' lawyer wrote, the information was not privileged. I want to take just a moment to tell you about the sponsor of this episode of Crime Fix. It's a great website. It's called truthfinder.com. I've covered crime for a really long time, so I can tell you that truthfinder.com is a great platform to research the people that you meet each day so you and your family can stay as safe as you can. I have a family, so I use Truthfinder for unlimited searches of people that I interact with each day and my family members, especially my

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information about almost anyone. Kayla Bumpus was brought in to represent Kenneth Copeland, little Woody on that contempt issue in the judges chambers. Kayla, thanks so much for coming on. First of all, give me a little bit of background on how you came to represent Lil Woody for that one hearing. Yes. So a lot of people have heard of Jonathan Melnick. He was there on the Friday before June 10th, which is pretty much when all of this arose. So I was standing in for him. That's something that criminal attorneys, especially, we do for each other all the time. We got to leave or a conflict, we'll just call our colleague and say, hey, can you go cover this for me briefly? And so that was the nature of my stand in.

So as you heard, Kayla Bumpus was Kenneth Copeland's attorney for a day, one day just for that meeting in Judge Glanville's chambers. She was simply helping out another attorney, Jonathan Melnick, because he couldn't be there and Copeland needed a lawyer present. I asked Bumpus to kind of take me inside that meeting. Well, pretty much because I still, you know, he rescheduled. We were supposed to do the show calls hearing today on the 25th. But last night, well, late yesterday evening around 530, he sends out this new show calls order, which moves the date to July 3rd. So I'm not really able to speak on what happened in that meeting just yet because my attorneys have advised me not to, because we don't know what's going to take place in the show cause hearing.

But I will say this, it was a situation where, like I said, I was under the impression that I was just coming in to see whether Mr. Copeland was going to testify or whether he was going to plead the fifth. And then after that, everything else kind of just happened. So after this hearing in judges chambers, and would you call it a hearing? I mean, there was a court reporter there. As far as I know, I mean, you were there. Lil Woody was there. The judge was there. The prosecution was there. It's my understanding sheriff's deputies were there providing security. All of that's accurate. Yeah. Yes. So this was definitely a hearing. Was there at any point during that hearing, did you feel like something wasn't right?

Like I said, it was a situation where I'm not going to say I necessarily felt something wasn't right as much as it was happening so fast. It wasn't expected. Afterwards, I even spoke to the actual attorney who sent me and he didn't know that it was going to happen. So I kind of was just in the moment. Now, Kayla Bumpus said this meeting with Kenneth Copeland and her being present were totally unexpected. You were a prosecutor. You worked at the DA's office at one point in time. And Adrian Love had stood up when Brian Steele made this public in court that one day. And she said basically that nothing was wrong with what happened, that there are circumstances in which each side can request an ex parte communication. And this was one of them. And that's why there was a court reporter there. Do you agree with that statement?

I agree that, I do agree with that statement. I don't know whether it applies here or not. Well, who should make that decision about whether it applies here or not? Do you think that that's a higher court that needs to make that decision? I do. I do think so. I mean, the prosecution has their reasoning behind what happened, but the defense also has their reasoning why they believe that it was an improper meeting. And, you know, I'm not on either. I'm not actually related to the case. So I definitely hear what both sides are saying. And like I said, for me actually being there, it just happened so fast. I was not expecting it to go the way it happened. It was kind of one of those things just once it started, it started. So you show up and this thing just kind of transpires and you're there making sure that Kenneth Copeland's rights are protected, things of that

nature. Brian Steele has made allegations. He believes there was some type of coercion that took place that basically that Judge Glanville may have said, look, I'm going to keep you here. You could be in contempt. You could sit here indefinitely until the end of all of these trials unless you testify. And so then Little Woody, according to Brian Steele's filing, says something like, well, you know, fine, I'll get up there then. Everything I'll say is a lie. Did you feel like there was anything that went on since you were representing him at that time, Little Woody, and you were his lawyer, his counsel during that meeting? Did you feel representing him at that time, Little Woody, and you were his lawyer, his counsel during that meeting, did you feel like anything happened that would make him feel like he was

coerced to get up on the witness stand? I'll say this, if I answer that question, my lawyers will probably call me right now and say, hang up the phone. So I really would have to wait until after I see what's gonna happen to me. Now, as I mentioned earlier, Kayla Bumpus could be held in contempt of court and possibly ordered to jail. So could the other people who were present for that ex parte meeting. Judge Glanville wants to know who leaked the information about the meeting in his chambers to Brian Steele. He held Brian Steele in contempt for not revealing his source and ordered him to jail for 20 days. Steele was granted a supersedious bond by the Georgia Supreme Court,

so he doesn't have to go to jail right now since he's appealing Judge Glanville's ruling. I asked Kayla Bumpus whether she was the person who told Brian Steele about that ex parte meeting. When you say, see what happens to me, talk to me a little bit about that. The judge has essentially publicly said that you may be the person who told Brian Steele about this. Brian Steele has refused to say who told him about what happened in chambers so would you like to answer that question what would you like to say did you tell Brian Steele about what happened in chambers and what that's another question that you know I can answer at a later date but what I can say is that is it's extremely alarming

that what in the midst of that, I was sitting in the courtroom and all of a sudden, you know, this blows up and I hear, I have a good idea of who did it. And I'm sure she violated attorney client privilege doing it. And I'm just sitting there like, whoa, that was very shocking to me that that would be made all in a matter, that assumption will be made in a matter of seconds. So you've been ordered to show cause. I mean, you've been ordered to appear at this show cause hearing. It's been now moved to July 3rd. Tell me what you've basically been ordered to do? I've been ordered to come and show why I should not be held in contempt. I'm not too sure what the contempt is.

Do you anticipate being put on the stand? I'm not sure. As you guys know, I have higher counsel and I'm going to do whatever my lawyers tell me to do. How do you feel about how this trial has unfolded so far? I mean, jury selection took 10 months. I feel like that's unheard of and the trial could go through the end of the year. I mean, this is taking forever. So what are your feelings on how this trial is proceeding and the pace and just how long everything has been taking? It's definitely, like you said, unheard of. It's something unprecedented. I mean,

every attorney that I've spoken to involved and not involved in the case has the same sentiment. It's just actually unbelievable that this has taken so long. And it's not the first case with a RICO and multiple defendants. I think about APS and BMF. All of those trials had multiple defendants, multiple attorneys, and none of them took this long or had this much controversy in the actual courtroom setting. You know, every defense attorney I speak to, and I've actually spoken to retired judges, when I tell them how long it's taken and the pace, they're shocked. They can't believe it. And I'm talking judges from other states who've handled high-profile cases, homicides, gang cases, things of that nature. They think

it's stunning. Kayla, you've kind of become ensnared in this whole controversy with Brian Steele, the Little Woody ex parte meeting that took place in chambers. Brian Steele basically said to the judge, you should have told me about this and you didn't. It shouldn't even have happened. We should have been present. Do you believe Brian Steele should have been present for that meeting? I believe that Brian Steele is doing his job and his job is to protect his client's rights and ensure that he has all the information necessary to defend his client. I cannot right now speak to that because like I said, I'm under scrutiny right now. And the way this trial is going and the decisions that are being made, it makes me nervous. It makes me nervous because it's like anything goes. Yes, it does feel like that at times.

So you're under scrutiny. You're being ordered to show up for this hearing on July 3rd. It was supposed to be held on the 25th. Today, it's moved to July 3rd. So what do you plan on doing on July 3rd when you show up for this hearing? Letting my attorneys do what they need to do. I mean, the motions that they have filed, I think they are wonderful. I think they have covered every base that needs to be covered. I think they are prepared in case something goes left for me. And, you know, there's nothing I can do but trust them. I have to, you know, put myself on the, I guess, in the position that I'm always counseling. And, you know, now I'm being counseled and I just have to trust them. You're the client. Yes. Kayla Bumpus, is there anything you'd like to add?

I just, you know, I think that it's very interesting the way everything has happened. And, you know, I'm really ready for this to be over. I'm thankful that despite all the media attention, you know, it has not been negative against me. And I have received a lot of support from people. And, you know, that's very important to me because initially, of course, I didn't expect this to happen from just coming to stand in for an attorney for one day. And this has turned into almost a three-week situation where I was just filling in for my colleague. But I'm just thankful that I have so much support. And I haven't seen one single negative comment about me, and I'm thankful for

that. Kayla Bumpus will be keeping a close eye on it. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. That show cause hearing to determine whether Kayla Bumpus or others would be held in contempt had been scheduled for June 25th, but Judge Glanville has postponed it to July 3rd, as you heard Kayla Bumpus say. His amended order changing the date does not single out Kayla Bumpus and Kenneth Copeland by name. I'll let you know what happens after that hearing. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.