Shooting witness tossed in jail: Knowledge Driven Revolution

Update - Detained witness released

A 20-year-old University of Manitoba student was taken from her home in handcuffs and forced to spend the New Year's long weekend in jail -- even though she hasn't been accused of committing a crime.

The Crown exercised a rarely used and controverisal section of the Criminal Code to have Evelynn Ye arrested Saturday morning on a "material witness warrant" in a murder case set to begin later this month.

They feared Ye was going to flee the province and join her family on a two-month vacation in Vietnam while ignoring a subpoena that requires her to testify against the alleged killer.

And they wanted her locked up until she was finished giving evidence.

"This is absolutely shocking. Just ridiculous. I've never seen anything like it," defence lawyer John Corona told the Free Press outside court yesterday.

Corona agreed to represent Ye after she appeared in Court of Queen's Bench, crying and without legal representation.

Ye -- who has no prior criminal involvement and is working towards her bachelor of sciences degree -- had spent the past three nights behind bars at the Portage women's jail and was still in custody at press time Tuesday night.

"I just want to go home. I haven't done anything wrong," the young woman sobbed to the judge before her bail hearing began.

Corona admitted his client is scared about appearing in court after being in the wrong place at the wrong time -- the parking lot of the Montcalm Gordon Motor Hotel when a fight broke out that ended with gunfire.

"She happened to see something she didn't want to see," he said outside court.

But Ye doesn't understand why she's seen as such an important witness for the Crown.

"We are shocked they'd go to this extraordinary length for someone who didn't even witness the shooting," said Corona.

Tam Le, 30, is accused of the deadly shooting of 28-year-old Miguel Munoz outside the popular suburban Winnipeg bar in June 2005. He has pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder and will begin his jury trial on Jan. 15.

Queen's Bench Justice Karen Simonsen agreed to release Ye on bail yesterday despite objections from Crown attorney Rajbir Dhillon. A court-ordered ban prevents specific details of the hearing from being published.

But Ye's release conditions include a $2,000 surety, and Corona said he fears his client could end up spending several more nights in jail because her father -- who doesn't speak English -- may have difficulty meeting the surety requirements.

Other family members either don't qualify or have gone overseas for the vacation Ye was supposed to be joining them on, he said.

If Ye is able to come up with the surety she will still have to have mandatory daily contact with the Winnipeg police homicide unit. She was also forced to turn over her passport until she has met her obligations as a witness.

Corona is questioning how the Crown was able to convince Justice Alan MacInnes to issue the initial arrest warrant for Ye during a hastily arranged private hearing last Thursday.

"There should be a much higher standard applied than what was done in this case," he said.

It isn't unusual for a witness to ignore a subpoena and then face arrest after failing to appear in court or refusing to testify when required.

But holding someone in custody as a precaution before the trial even begins is rarely seen in Canadian law.

Section 698.2 states "where it is made to appear that a person who is likely to give material evidence will not attend in response to a subpoena... or is evading service of a subpoena a court... may issue a warrant to cause that person to be arrested and to be brought to give evidence."

In Ye's case, she was served with a subpoena in late November and did have some discussions with police and the Crown about her reluctance to appear in court, Corona said outside court.

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