by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 17/97) - It could take as long as six weeks to try former poker baron Wing Lee on the many sex- and prostitution-related charges he now faces.

It could have been longer, but the Crown was forced to drop a dozen of the charges last week after two witnesses failed to show up at his long-running preliminary hearing.

The hearing wrapped up in a Yellowknife courtroom last week with Lee recommended for trial on 31 different charges. Twenty-four relate to allegations that he had sex with underage girls, three relate to guns and gambling allegations and four involve alleged tax evasion.

Lee's lawyer, James Brydon, said there will be separate trials for each of the three categories of charges. The income tax charges will likely go to trial first in February, and will probably only take a day. The guns and gaming charges will be tried in the spring and will take less than a week.

The sex charges are expected to be the lengthiest due to the number of charges and witnesses involved and it will not be until the fall of 1998 that four to six weeks can be cleared on the court's calendar to deal with them.

The final instalment of Lee's preliminary hearing, which ran for a number of months, was a short one, lasting less than 20 minutes. The income tax charges were the only new matters set over for trial as neither of the two witnesses who failed to show up at his last appearance showed up on Friday, forcing Crown prosecutor Mark Scrivens to drop 12 sex-related charges.

On the tax matters, Brydon argued unsuccessfully that the court had no jurisdiction to deal with them, because they do not specify where the offences occurred.

The sex, guns and gambling charges all stem from a summer RCMP raid on rooms Lee rented at the Gold Range Hotel, where he ran a poker room for many years. At that time, police say they seized gambling paraphernalia, guns and a number of videotapes and photographs showing nude girls under the age of 16.

Lee has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him and will remain in custody until his trials.