Suspected gang leader’s bail bid denied

Freedom remains elusive for suspected Calgary gang leader Nick Chan, whose bail bid was denied Monday, keeping him in jail until at least his murder trial next September.

Justice Richard Neufeld denied a request by defence lawyer Richard Cairns to release Chan on judicial interim release.

At the defence lawyer’s request, Neufeld earlier imposed a publication ban on the submissions before him and his reasons for detaining Chan.

For reasons Cairns declined to disclose, he also got off the record in the case, meaning Chan will have to find a new lawyer to represent him on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Chan has applied to Legal Aid for a publicly funded counsel.

It’s believed Cairns, one of the city’s top lawyers who won Chan an acquittal on a murder charge earlier this year, was on a private retainer with the accused.

Chan is charged with taking part in a plot to murder rival gang member Kevin Bontagon — a plan which ended in non-gangster Kevin Anaya being gunned down on a northeast city street on Aug. 9, 2008.

He was originally denied bail in September 2014 by Justice Sandy Park when he faced two separate first-degree murder charges, but Neufeld was asked to review that decision based on a change of circumstance.

Chan was acquitted on March 15 of first-degree murder in the Bolsa restaurant triple slayings when a four-man, eight-woman jury rejected the evidence of the Crown’s star witness.

At the time, Cairns said it wasn’t surprising the jury rejected the testimony of the witness, known only by the initials G.H., who had brokered an immunity deal in five separate homicides.

“I don’t believe anybody should be convicted of anything on the evidence of people like (G.H.), who’s a multiple murderer,” Cairns said following Chan’s acquittal.

Killed in the Jan. 1, 2009 slaughter were gangsters Sanjeev Mann and Aaron Bendle, and bystander Keni Su’a.

In ordering Chan to remain detained pending trial, Neufeld ruled he hadn’t met the test to justify his release.

In most bail cases, the onus is on the Crown to establish a reason for detention, but that shifts to the accused in murder cases.

Chan’s case will be back in court on Jan. 6 when Crown prosecutor Steven Johnston hopes he’ll have a lawyer in place to represent him and confirm readiness for a trial in September.

Pre-trial motions begin then and evidence before a jury will commence Oct. 2.