Sources say Kathy Ford agreed to talk with members of Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux’s team investigating the mayor, following a frame-grab picture from a video which has been reportedly offered for sale and witnessed by reporters at the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail.
The video reportedly depicts a gathering of the mayor, Kathy, friend Sandro Lisi and an alleged drug dealer in Kathy’s basement in north Etobicoke.
It has been reported by the Star the video shows the mayor inhaling a substance from a pipe that resembles an apparatus consistent with something used to smoke crack cocaine.
Rob Ford admitted to smoking crack cocaine in the past, adding he was not an addict, but he did not discuss the latest video.
However, on the day it was brought to his attention that a video was secretly being shopped around, he announced his intention to go to rehab. He remains in rehab where he says he is doing well.
Sources close to Kathy Ford said she felt it important to co-operate with police but was adamant she did not incriminate her brother during her interview.
Police say the investigation is continuing.
From rehab, Ford claimed he is aware “they are taping everything I say.” His brother Councillor Doug Ford has also said he believes his conversations have been recorded by police.
Giroux would not comment on the interview with Kathy Ford or allegations by the Ford brothers that they’re being surveilled. He referred the request to Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash, who e-mailed “we can’t comment on ongoing criminal investigations. I’m sure you can understand.”
Court documents have revealed Ford and Lisi were under surveillance last summer — as were other residents of a Dixon Rd. apartment complex — as part of the Project Brazen 2 probe.
In the past, concerning the whereabouts of the original “crack” video which has not been seen by the general public and was recorded at 15 Windsor Dr., police have spoken with people close to the mayor including staff and residents of the home. This video, captured on a cellphone, was the subject of months of intrigue. It was also viewed by Star reporters and American Gawker website editor John Cook. It was also later viewed by Chief Bill Blair and became the centrepiece of the Brazen 2 investigation.
With the newer video shot in Kathy Ford’s basement, the Globe and Mail has reported police have also spoken with a 20-year-old who was in the basement and who may have recorded the encounter which now, sources say, Kathy Ford agreed to sit down with police recently concerning the events of the day depicted in the latest video.
What was said in Kathy Ford’s interview with police is not yet public information — nor is the exact date or location it was granted.
A person close to Kathy Ford said she presented her version of events from the evening in April in her basement to police to co-operate with police and did not reveal personal information about her brother.
Kathy Ford and her lawyer Dennis Morris declined comment.
What the Kathy Ford meeting with police means to the case is up for conjecture.
Asked whether Kathy Ford meeting with officers could lead to criminal charges, former Toronto cop and crime specialist Ross McLean said “police are investigating to see if anything criminal occurred and if they deem there was, and have credible evidence to present it to the court, they would proceed.”
McLean believes it could become a “significant development” in the case.
“But police would always weigh the credibility of any witnesses or evidence they come across since those who speak to police have varying motivations,” he added.
McLean said investigators would “present evidence to the crown to determine whether or not there is a case or reasonable probability of a conviction” and “based on their agreement with the OPP for oversight, they may discuss with OPP Insp. Chris Nicholas and his investigators.”
The Star also reported the man believed to have shot the video in Kathy Ford’s home was called by her and invited to come over and “meet the mayor.” They claimed he walked down to the basement to find Rob Ford already impaired and that Kathy and friend Sandro Lisi were in the room.
The paper also reported the man said Rob Ford “beat” Lisi, who was “crying like a baby,” and that Kathy Ford “intervened.”
Kathy Ford was in court last week to set a trial date for missing a court date in relation to a 2012 toothbrush shoplifting incident.
She had been ordered to complete 25 hours of community service by May 2013 — which she claims she served, but police say she did not. She also skipped out on a court date on Feb. 13 when she was to provide proof of the community service. A bench warrant was subsequently issued.
She was arrested on Feb. 23 and released the following day on $500 bail. She will be back in court June 23 to deal with the missed court date and the matter of her completing the community service.
She refused to answer questions as she left the courthouse about whether the mayor smoked drugs in her basement last month, or about the mayor’s ongoing progress in rehab.
“Just leave me alone,” she said, as she kept her head down and jumped into a waiting cab.
Also this year, her convicted drug-dealing ex-boyfriend Scott MacIntyre alleged in a lawsuit that Rob Ford utilized his contacts to arrange for a jailhouse beating. MacIntyre was attacked in a Toronto jail in 2012 – leaving him with a broken leg, broken teeth and other injuries – after he was sent there in relation to an incident in January 2012 where he burst into the mayor’s home and later threatened to kill the mayor. He was sentenced to 10 months behind bars.
Sources say police are also interested to help connect the dots on the relationship between members of the Ford family and Lee Anne McRobb, the Muskoka woman who was given permission to borrow the mayor’s Cadillac Escalade and then was charged with impaired driving while operating the vehicle.
On May 21, McRobb was spotted at Gravenhurst’s Northland Towing and Recovery, the day she was charged, and two local radio staffers filmed her and put the video up on YouTube.
In the footage, she remarks she likes the towing worker’s watch and that she left hers at GreeneStone rehab facility “in Rob Ford’s room.”
She immediately said, “Oh, whatever, don’t worry about it. Just, just kidding.”
From rehab, Ford refused to comment on McRobb, the Escalade and the watch.
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