Today I’m taking the easy way out. Yesterday it took me approximately seven hours to post JuicyLesson #75 from start to finish so today I have decided to take a bit of a break and to spend less time on my post. By the way thanks to the fifty-eight people who visited my website yesterday. It felt really good considering the time I spent getting that whole JuicyLesson together.
This JuicyLesson concerns the Rob Ford saga. New allegations have surfaced. Ford is being accused (unofficially, at this point) of trying to purchase the video allegedly showing him on the pipe at the same time that he was claiming that the video did not exist.**
The story in circulation right now is that he offered $5k and a car as incentive so that he could get his hands on the clip.
Another allegation which has surfaced is that Ford has also done heroin, smack.
I have nothing more to say. I’ll let the video accompanying today’s Juicy Lesson as well as the newspaper articles speak for themselves.
** Ford’s actual words: “I cannot comment on a video which I have not seen or does not exist”.
Our first article is courtesy of Postmedia. It also contains a chronology of events related to the embattled mayor’s story beginning in February of 2013.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may have offered up to $5,000 in cash and a car in exchange for the now famous crack video, six weeks before Gawker and the Toronto Star reported the story, according to newly released wire taps.
Other conversations allege that Ford was at 15 Windsor Rd. (a place police refer to as a “crack house”) last April seeking drugs — which also means police were aware of alleged connections between Ford and drugs before the video reports blew up.
New portions of interviews with Ford’s former staff members say Doug Ford was kept in the loop about an anonymous phone call tipping staffer David Price to a Dixon Road apartment building where a man named in the documents was shot in the leg.
A judge ordered more portions of the Information To Obtain documents to be released earlier this month, including wiretap summaries. None of the information within the documents has been proven in court but offer a glimpse into the extent of the information police compiled about the mayor.
Previous allegations from the documents have shown staffers’ concerns about Ford’s drinking habits, racist language from Ford, suspicious package exchanges, sexual harassment, assault and drug use.
Many of the new allegations within the documents, if true, trap the mayor in several more mistruths that follow Ford’s habit of denying accusations until overwhelming evidence is presented to the contrary.
Media members confronted the mayor as he left his office Wednesday evening, but Ford just smiled, laughed and refused to respond to questions.
Coun. Ford told CP24′s Stephen LeDrew that he was unaware of what’s alleged in the documents but what’s done is done.
Doug Ford tells Stephen LeDrew he was not aware of what was in these documents; but what’s done is done, Mayor is moving forward #TOpoli—
Stephanie Smyth (@stephaniesmyth) December 04, 2013
Later on the same station, Towhey said he did not regret his time in the mayor’s office but it became “difficult to move forward in a spirited way.”
City councillors also expressed their shock at the most recent round of allegations.
“The more that comes out the nastier this story gets,” Coun. Joe Mihevc said. “This man needs help. He needs a lot of help.”
Adam Vaughan, another city councillor, spoke out on the mayor’s continuous lies about this scandal.
“If there’s anyone in Toronto who expects him to tell the truth, they need a drug test,” he said. “It’s astonishing his capacity to distort reality.”
Police Chief Bill Blair echoed his earlier statements about the role of the police.
“I don’t believe it’s appropriate for the police to comment on the evidence,” he said. “The courts have done what they’ve seen fit to do with it.”
Rob Ford’s lawyer dismissed the allegations, saying the wiretaps would never see a court and could not be trusted. He said the police should be made accountable for using an Information to Obtain a Search Warrant for Alexandre Lisi to gather evidence about Rob Ford.
But while Ford and his lawyer allege special treatment from the police in one direction, criticism is growing from other circles about special treatment from police in another direction.
“The swift & overreaching iron fist of the law for poor black men is so incredibly vivid when juxtaposed w/ delicate hand given to Rob Ford,” wrote one Twitter user.
The swift & overreaching iron fist of the law for poor black men is so incredibly vivid when juxtaposed w/ delicate hand given to Rob Ford.—
Steph Guthrie (@amirightfolks) December 05, 2013
These new allegations push the timeline of events surrounding the Ford scandal back several months before the Gawker story that started it all. Postmedia has produced a timeline of events, focusing on the alleged criminal elements, to bring you up to speed.
FEBRUARY 2013
This is when police allege the infamous video of Rob Ford appearing to smoke crack cocaine was filmed.
“The video was made surreptitiously in the month of February 2013 of the Mayor without his knowledge,” according to a police report concerning the arrest of Alexander “Sandro” Lisi on extortion charges for alleged attempts to retrieve the video.
“During the month of May 2013, the accused [Lisi] before the court became aware of the existence of a video that depicted the mayor of Toronto in a compromising, intoxicated position.”
MARCH 27
Police intercept a phone call between Mohamed Siad, the man believed to have been trying to sell the video of Ford, and Siyadin Abdi. According to police documents, two talked about their “friend” Mayor Ford and the night he was at the Garrison Ball, apparently intoxicated. They also talked about selling the video to media, according to the documents, but also about an offer from someone police believe is Ford himself:
“Remember that day he said that in front of me?”. ABDI replied “Ya, he said I’ll give you five thousand and a car. What the fuck is that?”. (Believed to be referring to an offer made by Mayor FORD) SIAD said that he is going to meet him and ask for “150″ (believed to be $150,000). ABDI said the video could be sold to both the Star and the other website. SIAD said he preferred going to him personally. ABDI told SIAD that would not be wise, as SIAD would be putting himself in jeopardy.
If true, an offer from Ford would indicate the mayor knew of the video several weeks before Gawker broke their story in May.
MARCH 28
Anthony Smith is shot in the head outside a King Street West nightclub. He dies in hospital later that day.
Smith — along with Monir Kassim and Muhammad Khattak — posed in the now-infamous photo of the mayor provided by the people attempting to sell the crack tape.
Although an alleged phone call to a staffer would suggest the video was the motive, police note in the documents that “The motive for the murder was also detailed during interceptions, and revealed the murder may have been retaliation for SMITH and his associates robbing MOHIADAN aka ‘Post’ last November.”
APRIL 20
The is the day Mayor Ford’s phone goes “missing.” Former staffer George Christopolous told police that Ford said he’d lost his phone at an Etobicoke community clean-up event, but the documents suggest otherwise.
According to wiretap summaries, Elena Basso, a resident of 15 Windsor Road, called Siyad at 12:52 a.m. to say the mayor is at her home and Siyad should come. Another call to Siyad from Abdullahi Harun repeats that Ford is there and Siyad should bring drugs.
Past 2 a.m., interceptions from Siyad and Harun say Ford was “smoking on the ‘dugga’” and “on the rocks today.” They also say photos were taken of the mayor “doing the hezza.”
According to Urban Dictionary, “hezza” is a slang term for heroin.
APRIL 21
After 11 a.m., Lisi called Siyad and said he was at 15 Windsor Rd. the night before and that “Rob is freaking out because he needs his phone.” Lisi “ threatened that if he did not get the phone back that the Mayor would put heat on Dixon.”
A police summary said the alleged thieves were “not concerned about FORD calling the police because they have a picture of him ‘on the pipe,’” according to a police summary.
Later that afternoon, according to the intercepts, Siyad has retrieved the phone and given it to Lisi in exchange for marijuana.
MAY 16
At 8:28 p.m., Gawker publishes their story about editor John Cook’s trip to Toronto to see the video of Rob Ford.
According to police documents, Lisi places an 8-second call to Fabio Basso, a resident of 15 Windsor Road, an hour after Gawker’s story is released. Two calls follow to Liban Siyad, a man implicated in the Project Traveller raids that Lisi is now accused to attempting to extort.
MAY 17
At 12:47 a.m., police intercept a call from Siad to a woman, asking her to take a phone out of a red pencil case and hold it for him. Police believe the woman is his sister, although she denies being part of the conversation in a later interview with police.
Later that morning, Ford staffer David Price receives two phone calls telling him where the video of Ford is: 320 Dixon Road. Price tells police the anonymous caller provided two people connected to the video — Gotti (the provided phone number was traced to Siad and “D.” A second number given by the caller was traced to Lisi — but it’s not clear whether this was “D” or the anonymous caller.
The caller connected the two to Anthony Smith and says the video was the motive in his murder. Ford’s former chief of staff Mark Towhey called police after Price told him about the calls.
Price informed Doug Ford about the calls and told police Coun. Ford said they were “interesting.”
MAY 21
Harun is shot in the leg on the 17th floor of 320 Dixon Road — the same floor where the anonymous caller told Price the crack video could be found. Harun is helped down the elevator by Siyad.
On either this day or the day before, Towhey said Price told him he “felt that the situation with ‘the video’ would be taken care of ‘as they spoke.’” Towhey told police in a later interview that this made him uncomfortable given the shooting.
Around 11 p.m. Fabio and his girlfriend are assaulted by a pipe-wielding suspect at 15 Windsor Road.
MAY 23
Towhey is fired.
MAY 24
“I do not use crack cocaine nor am I an addict of crack cocaine,” Mayor Ford said in a statement read to media. “As for a video, I can’t comment on a video I have never seen or does not exist.”
MAY 29
Siad, the alleged video seller, is kidnapped by Abdi and Ahmed Farah between 7 and 8 a.m. according to an intercepted phone call between Abdi and another associate. In this phone call, according to police documents, Abdi says they question Siad about the video of Ford, which Siad said he’d destroyed. Abdi allegedly threatened to kill Siad if he was ever seen in Dixon again. Abdi says Siad was crying.
At 8:36 a.m., Siad receives a text message saying “Fam if you dont want ur face out there. Call me. I keep telling them I dont know. If shit drags with no gp we are all fucked.”
And then another, “The star called me. Said older Somali talked to. Set up ting. My lawer can help. Lets link asap.”
In his reply, Siad said he was in “E town” (believed to be Edmonton) although cell tower information places him in Toronto.
JUNE 4
Gawker reports the video may be “gone.”
JUNE 13
Toronto police conduct their Project Traveller raids in the Dixon neighbourhood, arresting more than 40 people including Siad, Khattak and Kasim.
OCTOBER 1
Lisi is one of two men arrested on charges including drug trafficking.
OCTOBER 31
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair confirms they are in possession of the video of Ford, obtained from a hard drive seized on the Project Traveller raids. Lisi is also taken into custody on extortion charges for alleged threatening attempts to retrieve the video.
NOVEMBER 5
Rob Ford confesses that he’s smoked crack during what appeared to be an impromptu press conference outside his city hall office.
“Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors,” he said. “Probably approximately about a year ago.”
*Now this one courtesy of the Toronto Sun newspaper. Ford definitely has the sweats going on big-time in the photo.
