LAST IN WARRIORS TRIAL DENIED EARLY PAROLE

Group Of Eight Gets Different Fate Than Peers

THE final group of Manitoba Warriors -- who ended a lengthy legal saga
by pleading guilty to drug charges last summer -- has been denied the
right to early parole that was granted to other convicted gang members,
a defence lawyer said yesterday.

Stan Nozick told the Manitoba Court of Appeal that his client, gang
vice-president Isadore Vermette, and seven others are not eligible for
accelerated parole because Queen's Bench Justice Nathan Nurgitz, at
the Crown's request, made a finding that they were members of a
criminal organization.

Nozick said that Crown attorney Bob Morrison did not ask the judge for
a similar finding on any of the other 35 street gang members who
pleaded guilty to related charges in late 1999 and early 2000.

Under federal parole regulations, convicts are eligible for
accelerated parole after serving only one-sixth of a sentence,
provided they are for non-violent crimes.

However, amendments were made in 1999 that disqualify any members of a
criminal organization. Instead, they must serve at least one-third of
their sentence before parole eligibility.

Nozick asked the province's highest court yesterday to reduce
Vermette's four-year prison term on the grounds there is not parity
with other offenders, as the Crown claims, because of the parole provisions.

"This has certainly come back to haunt them," said Nozick, who doesn't
believe Morrison was even aware of the parole provisions when he made
the request.

Instead, the Crown may have been using the gang link as an aggravating
feature when justifying the sentences they were seeking, he said. The
final eight accused were considered the highest-ranking gang members.

Nozick also argued Vermette's sentence was "harsh and excessive"
because Nurgitz failed to consider how his client had found religion
and turned his life around.

Rehabilitation

He said unlike some other inmates, Vermette took advantage of
programming during his 20-month stay at the Winnipeg Remand Centre and
showed a greater likelihood for rehabilitation.

Nozick said he also suffered greatly, as all the Warriors did, from
their lengthy stay behind bars without bail. At one point, Vermette's
wife got frustrated by the lengthy legal proceedings and told Vermette
she was leaving him.

Vermette quickly went into a clinical depression, said Nozick.

"He would often just sit at a window in the remand centre, simply
staring out of it," he said. The couple has since reunited.

Morrison told the appeal court there is nothing unique about Vermette's
background or experience that should warrant a reduction in sentence.