FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — An attorney for another defendant standing trial in the gang indictment against Atlanta rapper Young Thug and several others is accusing a deputy of assaulting her client.
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Channel 2′s Michael Seiden was at the Fulton County courthouse Monday, where he talked with Sheriff Pat Labat, who said the defendant has been an ongoing problem and has refused to listen to deputies.
Labat said that this morning while he was waiting to be transported from the jail to the courthouse, he started spitting on the floor of the van and then eventually in the deputy’s face.
Defense attorney Angela D’Williams says her client, Rodalius Ryan, was punched in the head by a Fulton County sheriff’s deputy, leaving him with cuts and bruises.
“I will be filing a formal complaint with the sheriff’s department and I hope they do a thorough investigation,” D’Williams said.
She says they claimed Ryan spit on them first.
“My clients said he went “shh” because he was upset about something, and they took that as him spitting,” D’Williams explained. “When they told him to get out of the van, they just grabbed him before he had a chance by his legs, dragged him out. His head hit the van on the floor, and they dragged him out some more. He actually hit the sidewalk.”
According to the incident report filed Monday afternoon, Ryan was waiting to be transported from the jail to the courthouse when investigators say he started spitting on the floor of the transport van.
When told he would have to clean it up, the deputy says he began spitting in his direction and hit him in the side of the face.
Deputies say he stiffened his body and laid on the backseat when they tried getting him out of the van. The deputy said he was forced to get physical and remove him from the van and place him on the ground.
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This is the second lawyer defending alleged members of the criminal street gang Young Thug to claim deputies assaulted defendants. Last week, a lawyer representing Kahlieff Adams said a deputy tased him to the point he had to go to the hospital after Adams allegedly passed Young Thug a Percocet in the courtroom during jury selection.
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