Pubdate: Thu, 12 Sep 2002
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2002, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Tony Blais

TRANG GANG TRIAL JUDGE ON SPOT

A trial that began nearly two years ago stemming from the massive 
cocaine-trafficking case against an alleged city drug gang could end up 
back at Square 1.

Defence lawyers for 11 alleged lower-echelon members of the Trang gang are 
asking Court of Queen's Bench Justice Doreen Sulyma to remove herself from 
the case.

The lawyers argue Sulyma lost "jurisdiction" over the trial when she 
ordered defence counsel from the courtroom and had a private discussion 
with the Crown about the disclosure of some potentially privileged evidence.

If Sulyma is successfully forced off the case - which has already cost 
taxpayers millions of dollars - a new trial would have to be ordered.

"This is not a frivolous application," defence lawyer Marshall Hopkins told 
Sulyma, despite what he called the Crown's good intentions regarding the 
disclosure matter.

"What happened was clear. The accused were denied the right to be present," 
said Hopkins yesterday.

He said the fact the defence lawyers did not object to being excluded from 
the courtroom on Sept. 4 is irrelevant and noted they were not asked about 
the procedure.

"Rather the court ordered defence counsel to leave," said Hopkins.

"There has been an affront to the system of open justice," he said. "The 
trial should not continue."

During the application, the judge questioned whether she had lost 
jurisdiction over the case which led to defence lawyer Richard Cairns 
alleging that excluding the accused from the courtroom is an error of 
judgment. Federal prosecutors are slated to argue today.

The 11 accused, who face charges of conspiring to traffic in cocaine, were 
originally part of a group of 21 alleged gangsters who were severed from a 
group of 30 when the Crown streamlined the case by splitting it into two 
trials.

Since the March 2001 rejigging, charges have been stayed against at least 
10 of the accused.

As of the summer of 2001, the federal government had spent $3.8 million on 
court-ordered defence legal fees and other expenses in the case.

The alleged gangsters were arrested in September 1999 following a massive 
14-month police operation, which cost $750,000, in Edmonton, Red Deer and 
Fort McMurray.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart