JUDGES HEAR APPEAL OF SENTENCES, CRITICISM OF SYSTEM

Warriors Case Hits High Court

THE prosecution of the Manitoba Warriors street gang was put on trial
yesterday as the province's highest court was asked to weigh in on the
controversial case.

Four of the final 12 street gang members who ended the $10-million
legal saga last summer by pleading guilty to drug charges were before
the Manitoba Court of Appeal asking for reduced sentences.

From the outset, it was clear the appeal was going to focus on more
than just the length of prison terms.

Defence lawyers launched an aggressive attack on the justice system
for targeting the 35 native street gang members and painting them as a
dangerous criminal organization.

They said the trial judge failed to account for their native
backgrounds, or the undue hardship they suffered during Manitoba's
most expensive criminal trial.

"We have an inordinate amount of natives in the criminal justice
system. We are dealing with a group of native males, who, for too many
years, have been seeing their parents and siblings suffer at the hands
of what they see as a discriminatory system," said lawyer Evan Roitenberg.

"It's this court's role now to hopefully try to undo some of that
systematic discrimination."

The Warriors were arrested in November 1998 following an undercover
police investigation into drug dealing at several inner-city hotels.

Originally touted as a two-week project, it quickly escalated into a
year-long glimpse at the inner workings of the province's most
structured street gang.

Roitenberg said yesterday the entire prosecution appears to have been
designed to force guilty pleas out of the accused and punish those who
chose to exercise their right to fight the case in court.

None of the accused was granted bail following their arrest.

Guilty pleas began trickling in during the fall of 1999, after the
provincial government authorized construction of a special courthouse
in Fort Garry.

Extra sheriff's officers were hired to protect the building, in which
the accused were shackled to the floor after being driven from the
Remand Centre in vans.

"To be shackled to the floor is an (indignity) no one should have to
suffer," said Roitenberg.

As the case dragged on through a series of legal challenges and
motions -- many brought on by defence lawyers -- more guilty pleas
were entered.

The final dozen accused were given sentences ranging from time in
custody to four years in prison.

Lawyers for the four accused who are appealing their prison terms said
yesterday they should be set free immediately for time spent in custody.

They asked the appeal court to give the gang members bonus credit for
the time they spent in jail prior to pleading guilty.