A Fulton County judge is dangling the prospect of handcuffs in front of a prosecutor in the office of District Attorney Fani Willis after her outburst prompted a harsh reprimand.
Declaring the behavior of Assistant District Attorney Adriane Love far outside decorum, district Judge Ural Glanville warned the prosecution that similar behavior in federal court would land them in jail.
“None of you would do this if you were in the United States District Court, none of you,” Glanville declared according to Newsweek.
“My colleagues in federal court would probably jail most of you, and for those of you who have practiced in federal court, this is not the way it goes,” Glanville said. “From the state’s perspective as well as the defense perspective, everything’s filed in advance. So, why should you do anything less in this courtroom?”
The warning came less than a day after Love and Glanville got into a heated argument over the submission of evidence, with Love declaring she followed procedures and the judge responding that she hadn’t.
“Why didn’t we file this stuff months ago and let’s wind it out and air it out at that point in time,” Glanville said during the evidentiary hearing earlier this week for the criminal case against rapper Young Thug.
Asked if prosecutors had previously discussed excluding the materials, he added, “Well then you all should have gotten yourself together beforehand.”
As Love rose to object, Judge Glanville cut her off.
“Have a seat, madam. Have a seat,” he told her. “You better exclude that and next time, make sure you’re prepared.”
“We prepared, judge! That’s why I sent them what I sent them last week! A whole week and a half ago! Two weeks, your honor!” she shouted back up until the point that the jury began to enter the courtroom.
Love is the lead prosecutor in a racketeering case against Young Thug, an area hip-hop artist whom Willis has charged with leading the YSL gang in the Atlanta area and contributed to a rise in violent crime. Willis, who was rumored to have had an affair with Young Thug, was not present during the hearings.
The trial began in November 2023 and is expected to continue for the next several months. Judge Glanville has previously requested that Love and a defense attorney for the rapper “take it down a notch” in their rebuttals.
The unprofessional behavior from Willis’ peers also extended to a male colleague who hit on a female witness in the case last year, Newsweek previously reported.
“Hit me up if you’re bored later. We’re not gonna talk shop,” said an investigator identified as Hamilton in court documents. Asked on the stand what he wanted to talk about, Hamilton told defense attorney Keith Adams he wanted to ask her on a “date.”
“Did the fact that this employee of the district attorney’s office was trying to date you come into your mind as you were thinking about whether you would be coming in and testifying or not?” Adams asked the witness.
“Yes,” she responded.
Scrutiny of Willis’ hiring practices first began with Nathan Wade, a deputy prosecutor in her case against former President Donald Trump. Last month a Fulton County judge ordered Willis to resign or ask Wade to step down after it was discovered that they carried on an affair and may have lied about it under oath. Investigators in the U.S. House and Georgia legislature continue to probe the district attorney’s use of funds by her office.
