More charges laid
Second man charged in Wing Lee case

by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 24/97) - Another man has been charged in the Wing Lee sex and gambling investigation and more people could be charged soon.

Yellowknife RCMP charged the man Monday with a drug offence and having sex with underage girls. He appeared in court briefly on Tuesday, where he was released on bail.

Police made no comment on the latest charges except to say that their investigation is ongoing and more charges may be laid against other suspects.

"We have eight members working on this investigation full-time and we won't be releasing any information until the investigation is completed," Staff Sgt. Dave Grundy said this week.

Meanwhile, Lee's preliminary hearing continued at the Yellowknife courthouse on Monday.

A number of new sex-related charges were laid and four charges were dropped, bringing the total number of charges he faces to about 50.

Two charges of making child pornography were dropped because that was not a Criminal Code offence when some of the sex videos entered as evidence were alleged to have been made in 1993.

In addition, a charge of obstruction and a sexual assault charge were also dropped against the 61-year-old Yellowknife resident, who ran a poker room at the Gold Range Hotel.

More than 1,300 videotapes and hundreds of photographs of young girls, in addition to gambling paraphernalia, guns and ammunition were allegedly seized by police in a raid on his rooms in the Range by police last year.

Lee, who has already been committed to stand trial on the gambling charges, will be back in court in November as the preliminary hearing into the sex charges continues.