How much longer before crazy Rob Ford's in jail?

Rob Ford behind jailhouse beating, lawsuit claims

Toronto's mayor accused in lawsuit of conspiring to have former friend beaten

Kevin Donovan/Investigations
Rachel Mendleson/News Repoerer
Betsy Powell/City Hall Bureau

Wednesday, January 29, 2014



A lawsuit alleges that this video showing Mayor Fob Ford in a drunken rant is about Scott MacIntyre, the former common-law spouse of the mayor's sister Kathy.

To keep secret his habit of doing drugs and hanging out with gang members, Mayor Rob Ford conspired to silence a former family friend with threats and a brutal jailhouse beating, according to unproven allegations contained in a $3.6-million lawsuit the former friend has filed in court.

In yet another twist in the Ford saga, Scott MacIntyre, once the common-law spouse of Ford’s sister Kathy, alleges that Ford planned the attack with his former assistant coach and used one of his former football players to carry it out.

It’s an attack MacIntyre claims was foretold in the “murder rant video,” a dramatic video the Star obtained last year that shows an impaired, enraged Ford vowing to kill someone.

WATCH THE VIDEO

MacIntyre is suing Ford, onetime Don Bosco football player Aedan Petros, and former assistant coach Payman Aboodowleh. He is also suing the provincial corrections ministry for failing to keep him safe while in jail awaiting sentencing.

Ford’s lawyer, Dennis Morris, denied that the mayor conspired to have MacIntyre attacked in prison.

“It's very irresponsible and spurious to say he did,” Morris said. Ford has not commented on the allegations.

The allegations contained in this lawsuit have not been tested in court. Morris, a criminal lawyer, said Ford will be retaining a civil lawyer in connection with these allegations. The mayor’s spokesperson, Amin Massoudi, said Wednesday night that Toronto lawyer Gavin Tighe would be representing Ford.

“I’m definitely being consulted … and I expect that we will be defending the matter, delivering our statement of defence in the normal course … in the coming weeks,” Tighe said Wednesday night. “Our position will be pretty clear in our statement of defence, but my understanding is there’s no merit to this in fact or in law.”

Tighe successfully defended the mayor in a defamation lawsuit filed by restaurant owner George Foulidis.

Speaking to reporters outside his city hall office after his property tax proposal was defeated Wednesday, Ford said, “It’s probably the worst day since I’ve been mayor down here at city hall.”

He refused to answer questions about the allegations in the lawsuit.

MacIntyre is seeking $1.2 million in damages from each of the three defendants, totalling $3.6 million.

By his own admission, MacIntyre has struggled with his own drug problems and alleges he was well aware the mayor had a longstanding “association with criminals to facilitate his drug abuse” long before it was known through media reports and police documents last year.

The events that laid the groundwork for this lawsuit bubbled over early on a January morning in 2012.

MacIntyre showed up at Ford’s Etobicoke house. He was high and angry, screaming “You owe me money, your sister owes me money,” according to the sentencing documents in the criminal case. He and Ford almost came to blows. When police arrived, MacIntyre was heard threatening to kill Ford.

Arrested and charged, MacIntyre quickly pleaded guilty and was in the Metro West Detention Centre awaiting sentencing.

MacIntyre states in his lawsuit that on the morning of his visit to Ford’s home he told the mayor to be careful how he treated him, reminding him he “knew things about Ford and his family which had not been made public.” Jail guards, once MacIntyre was locked up, discovered a letter he wrote to Kathy that repeated that warning.

According to MacIntyre, he was repeatedly warned in jail to keep his “mouth shut” and “do the right thing,” or suffer the consequences. His lawsuit states he took this to mean he should not reveal any secret information about the mayor.

In scenes worthy of the television series The Wire (about drugs and gangs in Baltimore), MacIntyre describes continual threats by other prisoners on the range at Metro West, particularly two men, Petros (a former Don Bosco player) and another former player, Rexford Williams. Both were in jail pending trial on charges they carried out a violent home invasion, severely beating a victim and slashing him with a knife.

MacIntyre alleges the plan to beat him up in jail was hatched in March 2012 at the Rexdale home of Aboodowleh, Ford’s former assistant coach and a man with his own criminal record, including a conviction for assaulting a police officer.

The Star obtained and published a video last year showing Ford in an impaired rant, threatening to kill someone.

“I’ll rip his f---ing throat out. I’ll poke his eyes out. . . . I’ll make sure that motherf---er’s dead,” Ford says in the video, then hitches up his pants as if bracing for action, according to a Star transcript of the video.

The video was taken, MacIntyre says in the statement of claim, in Aboodowleh’s home. The Star has tried to speak to Aboodowleh and his mother several times about this, but they have declined comment as recently as Wednesday.

MacIntyre states that Ford and Aboodowleh “discussed plans to have (MacIntyre) beaten or killed.”

In jail, MacIntyre was in and out of segregation, complaining to guards that he was being threatened.

On March 22, 2012, just outside the showers on Range 1B, MacIntyre was attacked and beaten by three men. He alleges it was Petros and two others.

Despite cameras in the area, he said nobody came to his aid. In injuries later described in his sentencing, his left tibia and fibula were severely fractured, and he sustained facial lacerations and severe dental damage. Four of his teeth were sheared off at the gum line.

In the section of his lawsuit that deals with the provincial corrections officials, MacIntyre states that he was not transferred to hospital for 36 hours, and his injuries today are more debilitating as a result.

MacIntyre was released from jail in September 2012.

A source told the Star that MacIntyre, in discussion with jail staff, did not want to co-operate with a police investigation that could lead to charges and a prosecution — but it is not clear why. The source said that if a victim is unwilling to pursue a prosecution and assist police, “that’s pretty much it.”

When asked about McIntyre’s allegation that the mayor was caught on video threatening to kill him, Ford’s lawyer Morris said: “He denies that he was going to kill anybody.”

Morris, who was present in council chambers throughout the afternoon, said he has not yet had an opportunity to discuss with Ford the allegations in detail.

“He hasn’t said much because he’s been busy all day,” Morris said.



Mayor Rob Ford's lawyer answers questions regarding a recent legal suit against the mayor.

Ford has not yet filed a statement of defence, he said.

Councillor Doug Ford has so far declined to comment on the fresh allegations his brother faces. He blew past the crush of reporters gathered outside the mayor’s office on Wednesday before returning to budget deliberations.

  Statement of claim: MacIntyre v Ford Et Al