Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s aides say they saw him doing drugs, drunk in public and while driving and partying with women believed to be prostitutes, newly released documents show.
Here are some highlights from the hundreds of pages of documents released Wednesday in connection with Toronto Police’s investigation into Ford and his friend Sandro Lisi.
None of the statements in the police documents have been tested or proven in court.
1. Crack video offered to CTV before Gawker or the Star
A CTV news cameraman was offered a video of mayor Ford in a “compromising position” in February, 2013 – well before the now-infamous broker approached the Toronto Star or Gawker.
Cameraman Andrew Lawson was sitting in a CTV news truck in the Kipling and Dixon Road area when a young man he described as “cocky, friendly and funny” approached him, telling him that he was a cameraman too.
The young man said he had a compromising video of the mayor and would sell it for for six figures. Lawson suggested the man call CTV’s news director. It appears the would-be seller didn’t follow up.
2. Domestic assault call to Ford’s house this summer
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At 6:51 pm on August 27 Toronto police responded to a domestic assault call at 223 Edenbridge Drive, Rob Ford’s home.
A swath of information that follows in the documents is still blacked out. But between 6:58 p.m. and 10:26 p.m., 18 calls and texts were exchanged between Sandro Lisi, David Price and Rob Ford on both his Deco business phone and in-car OnStar phones. All calls lasted a minute or less.
On the same day as the assault call, an undercover officer went to Richview Cleaners to arrange to buy a quarter pound of marijuana from Jamshid Bahrami. At the time Bahrami identified his supplier to the undercover cop as a man named Sandro, the mayor’s “bodyguard.” Officers surveilling the cleaners waited for Lisi to arrive, but the surveillance was disrupted by the call from Ford’s house, the documents say.
3. Oxycontin
There was chatter among Ford’s staff that he was abusing
Oxycontin, according to a police interview with former press secretary George Christopoulos. The mayor had been prescribed Oxycontin following an infection from a dirty asthma inhaler.
Former chief of staff Mark Towhey told police Earl Provost witnessed Ford take a pill at the Bier Market on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2012, the same night as the mayor’s drunken escapade at city hall. That evening Ford also drank heavily from a 40 ounce bottle of vodka and pushed staffer Earl Provost against a wall, while calling him and other staffers “liberal hacks” and “liberal b****es”, the police documents say. Ford was also observed possibly using cocaine by a server at the Bier Market, documents say.
4. Booze
Former staffer Chris Fickel told police that he was frequently tasked with buying the mayor vodka — always Iceberg brand.
Fickel said he saw the mayor drunk numerous times, including at the office.
Fickel told police he observed the mayor drinking and driving late last year when he and Don Bosco volunteer coach Payman Aboodowleh were with Ford. The mayor, driving in his Escalade, pulled over and brought out a mickey of vodka from an LCBO paper bag. He downed the vodka in under two minutes and chased it with Gatorade, according to Fickel.
5. Pot
Isaac Ransom told police he found a joint in the mayor’s desk. It was gone a few days later, the documents say.
Fickel’s ex-girlfriend, Victoria Hill, told police the mayor lit a joint in front of her one evening in January 2013, while Fickel dropped in to fix the mayor’s computer on the weekend.
Hills was invited downstairs to the Ford’s living room, where the mayor first offered her a beer, then marijuana. She declined both and told police she was uncomfortable watching the mayor smoke pot, the documents say.
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