Drug dealer who recorded new video says the mayor pummelled the friend charged with extortion over trying to retrieve the first video. Lisi was “crying like a baby.”
Mayor Rob Ford assaulted friend Sandro Lisi and repeatedly used a highly offensive racial slur on the night he was filmed smoking crack cocaine, according to the 20-year-old drug dealer who shot the recent video.
Ford repeatedly used the n-word to refer to the drug dealer, and described former Toronto Community Housing boss Eugene Jones, whom he supports, with the same word, the man alleged.
“No n----- gets fired in my town. When I get re-elected that n----- is going to be back in charge,” Ford said, according to the dealer’s account of the night.
The Star met the 20-year-old man and an associate Thursday in Kingston. The man spent two hours going over his account of the night.
He also played three videos totalling eight minutes that he surreptitiously filmed between 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. on Saturday in Kathy Ford’s home.
Dennis Morris, Ford’s criminal lawyer, said he had no knowledge of the alleged remarks and could not comment. He also said he was unaware that his client got into an altercation with Lisi.
Lisi has been charged with extortion for allegedly trying to retrieve an earlier video showing the mayor smoking crack and making homophobic and racially charged comments. The mayor has remained publicly loyal to his friend.
Neither Lisi nor Lisi’s lawyer responded to requests for comment. The Star could not reach Kathy Ford.
The 20-year-old man described himself as a friend of Kathy Ford, who is 53. He said he has an involvement in the drug world but balked when a Star reporter called him a drug dealer.
“I’m just following the paper (money) like everybody else in the world,” he said.
The video viewed by the Star clearly shows Lisi, Rob Ford and Kathy Ford. It does not record the alleged beating of Lisi but does show Ford inhaling from a homemade pipe passed to him by Kathy, who has struggled with drug addiction. A cloud of white smoke is spread as Ford inhales and exhales.
The microphone on the man’s iPhone was not working and only white noise is heard.
The Star did not pay any money to view the video.
In his account of the evening, the drug dealer alleges that Ford three times got Lisi down and pummeled him until Kathy Ford intervened .
“Poor Sandro was crying like a baby,” the dealer said, describing Lisi down on the ground, protecting his face as blows rained down on him from Ford.
“Leave him be, Robbie,” the man recalled Kathy saying.
“He’s the mob,” Ford said, getting up off Lisi.
“Oh right,” Kathy said, rolling her eyes, the man said.
Ford’s use of racist language in public and in private was a concern for his staff during his mayoralty, former aides told the Star last year during the turbulent weeks after news emerged of the first video showing the mayor smoking crack cocaine.
“I don’t think he believes it’s offensive,” said one former staffer, speaking on condition that his name not be used.
On Monday, an apparently impaired Ford was recorded at an Etobicoke bar making disparaging remarks about Italians in audio obtained by the Toronto Sun.
In the recording, the mayor mentions “a dumb f---ing w-p over there.”
“Sorry, is that racist? Sorry. If you don’t get a shot in two seconds I’ll knock your f---ing teeth out. No, no, I don’t want that f---ing d-go down there to start.”
Sources last year told the Star such vulgar language was not uncommon for Ford in private conversations overheard by staff.
“These are all words we have heard,” said a onetime employee, pausing for a breath before reeling off a list of objectionable epithets that refer to blacks, Jews, Pakistanis, Indians, Poles and Italians.
Another ex-aide, who also requested anonymity, confirmed that he has heard Ford use each of those derogatory terms.
Ford’s lawyer, Morris, said he could not comment on the allegations.
“I can’t comment because you don’t identify (the sources),” said Morris, adding he has no way to confirm the information is “authentic.”
He questioned whether the comments could have been “cherry-picked” to portray Ford in a negative way.
“It’s very hard to comment when I don’t have the full picture before me,” he said.
The mayor’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford, did not respond to a request for comment.
In the infamous video of Ford smoking crack cocaine revealed by the Star last May, the mayor is heard referring to the black football players he used to coach as “just f---ing minorities.”
Similarly, on the mayor’s St. Patrick’s Day bender in 2012, he called a cab driver an ethnic slur as mortified aides sat beside him in the taxi.
This week, insiders told the Star that Ford is usually careful around more senior staff and other politicians, but he lets loose when hanging out with his friends or in front of younger aides — especially when under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Last January, he was secretly recorded at the Steak Queen restaurant spewing profane, expletive-laden insults at Police Chief Bill Blair, whose officers had been investigating the mayor’s activities and associations.
Bizarrely, Ford was speaking in a heavy Jamaican accent and using patois.
“F---ing Chief Blair,” he said. “They chase me around for five months … you know how much that costs?”
“‘Bro’, we’re counter-surveilling you, guy.’ You know what I mean? He’s hiding here, I’ma hide here. I’ma hide…”
Ford also said “c---sucker” before ranting about Blair, using Jamaican expletives.
He later explained that he and his pals often use patois.
The drug dealer described how he came to be at Kathy Ford’s home Friday night. She had called him to come over and “meet the mayor,” the man said.
The drug dealer alleged he walked down to the basement to find Ford already impaired and that Ford immediately “puffed out his chest and acted like he wanted to fight me.”
Ford then asked the man to “feel my muscles,” the dealer said.
The dealer alleged that when Kathy intervened in the attack on Lisi, Ford pushed and kicked his sister before backing off. He alleged that she then lit up a crack pipe.
“Give me some of that,” Ford allegedly said, and grabbed the pipe.
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2014/05/02/rob_ford_beat_pal_sandro_lisi_on_night_of_crack_video_claims_man_who_shot_it.html
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