The lead detective in an investigation into Mayor Rob Ford and others confirms police have reviewed a video that shows the mayor in a profane rant.
Investigators reviewed the video when it surfaced in a Toronto Star report in November, Toronto police Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux told CP24 reporter Katie Simpson in response to a Star report Friday.
The video was back in the news this week when Ford and others were named in a statement of claim filed on behalf of Scott MacIntyre, the ex-boyfriend the mayor’s sister, Kathy Ford.
The statement of claim accuses the mayor of being involved in the planning of a jailhouse assault on MacIntyre when he was in pre-trial custody at the Metro West Detention Centre in March 2012.
At the time, MacIntyre was being held on a charge of threatening the mayor.
MacIntyre claims the beating was arranged to silence him after he wrote a letter to Kathy Ford and threatened to expose her brother for alleged drug and alcohol abuse and associations with “criminal elements.”
Ford meeting captured on video: document
Someone filmed part of a meeting where an “extremely agitated” Ford and Payman Aboodowleh conspired to harm MacIntyre, and the video was posted online, the statement of claim alleges.
The court document doesn’t describe the video in detail, but the Star is reporting that the video mentioned in the statement of claim is the video that was obtained by the newspaper.
In that video, the mayor talks about killing someone and is seen ranting and pacing back and forth in a room.
“I’ll rip his f---ing throat out, I’ll poke his eyes out … I’ll make sure that mother---er’s dead,” Ford says to people off camera. “I need f---ing 10 minutes to make sure he’s dead.”
The court document claims the meeting took place at Aboodowleh's house shortly before March 19, 2012.
In addition to Ford, the statement of claim names Aboodowleh, who helped Ford coach the Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School football team, Aedan Petros, a former player who is accused of carrying out the attack with at least one other inmate, and the minister of correctional services.
According to the statement of claim, MacIntyre suffered a fractured tibia and fibula, facial lacerations and dental damage in the jailhouse assault.
None of the allegations has been tested or proven in court and none of the defendants has filed a statement of defence. Ford’s lawyer told reporters the allegations against him are false.
In the months after the attack, MacIntyre pleaded guilty to uttering a threat against the mayor and he was sentenced to five months in jail.
Project Brazen investigation continues
Meanwhile, Giroux said detectives are still conducting interviews in the ongoing investigation into Ford and others, including Alexander Lisi.
Police launched the investigation, called Project Brazen 2, last year when they became aware of a separate video that allegedly shows Ford smoking from a glass pipe.
The mayor has not been charged by police.
Lisi was charged with drug offences and extortion for alleged attempts to retrieve a recording, and he is awaiting trial.
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