Here We Go Again

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been named in a statement of claim that alleges he was behind the jailhouse assault of his sister's ex-boyfriend. CBC News' Jamie Strashin first reported that Scott MacIntyre has filed a statement of claim against Ford. Ford's lawyer, Dennis Morris, later confirmed the legal action to reporters.
"They are without fact or foundation," Morris told reporters at city hall.
The incident in question occurred in March of 2012, while MacIntyre was in custody in the Metro West Detention Centre. The Globe and Mail reports the lawsuit alleges that Aedan Petros orchestrated the assault, which left MacIntyre with shattered teeth and a broken leg.


Petros is described by the Globe as a "300-pound, violent criminal who played defensive tackle for Mr. Ford when he was the coach of the football team at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School."
Petros was arrested alongside Rexford Williams on Aug. 19, 2011, and charged with armed robbery, threatening death and aggravated assault, among other offences, in connection to an early-morning home invasion.


According to previous reports, by both the Sun News Network and the Toronto Star, Justice Paul French determined in a sentencing hearing that MacIntyre was viciously beaten in an episode of "jail-house justice" because "of his being a bother to [Mayor] Ford."
In an article published by the Toronto Sun's Joe Warmingon on Wednesday, Ford said he was sick of rumours that he was behind the attack on MacIntyre. He said the idea that he had directed a former football player to assault someone in jail was "far-fetched."
"It pisses me off," Ford is quoted as saying.
Ford also denied rumours that he was involved in the death of Anthony Smith, a young man he posed with in a photograph linked to Ford's crack video scandal. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

(Video courtesy The Canadian Press)

 Scott MacIntyre filed a $1-million lawsuit relating to the jailhouse assault, which names the mayor, an assistant football coach, a football player and the Ontario’s Ministry of Correctional Services as defendants.

 The mayor’s lawyer, Dennis Morris said Wednesday that it is "very irresponsible and spurious" to suggest Ford was involved. All defendants have 20 days to respond to the statement of claim.

In January of 2012, MacIntyre was charged — and later convicted — after making threats against Ford at the mayor’s home. MacIntyre, in his statement of claim, says that before he left the mayor’s house, he indicated that "Ford should be careful about how he treated the plaintiff because the plaintiff knew things about Ford and his family which had not been made public."



The statement of claim says that MacIntyre subsequently wrote a letter to the mayor’s sister a few days after he was taken into custody, which the mayor understood "to be a threat by the plaintiff to disclose Ford’s drug and alcohol abuse and association with criminals."

The statement of claim goes on to say that "Ford became highly agitated that the plaintiff might disclose Ford’s unsavoury activities" and allegedly conspired with Payman Aboodowleh, an assistant coach of the mayor’s high school football team, to "send a firm message to the plaintiff to prevent him from doing so."



Part of these alleged discussions were recorded in a video, the statement of claim says. MacIntyre's lawyer says the video is the same one made public in November. At one point during that video, an agitated Ford can be heard talking about wanting "to kill" someone.

The statement of claims alleges that Ford and Aboodowleh "agreed that one or both of them" should reach out to two football players who were in custody at the Metro West Detention Centre where MacIntyre was also being held.

According to the statement of claim, MacIntyre began to receive threats and was repeatedly told to keep his mouth shut or suffer consequences. The threats came from the two football players "and through other inmates."



According to MacIntyre, he received threats both before and after he wrote the letter to Ford’s sister, an act for which he was put into segregation for two weeks. His statement of claim also says that when he was let out of segregation, he was put in a part of the jail where inmates who are younger and often "more prone to violent and disruptive behaviour" are typically kept.

MacIntyre says he appealed to jail staff to put him back into segregation because of the threats, which they did. But when he was released from segregation, he was back in the part of the jail he had been in before.



The statement of claim alleges that a jail staff member had written instructions that MacIntyre was not to be put in the part of the facility where older and calmer inmates were kept.

MacIntyre was later attacked while inside the Metro West Detention Centre on March 22, 2012.

According to his statement of claim, the attack occurred near a shower and resulted in MacIntyre’s left tibia and fibula being "severely fractured." He also suffered "facial lacerations and severe dental damage."



MacIntyre had to undergo surgery and spent months recovering from his injuries, according to the statement of claim. When MacIntyre was sentenced on June 13, 2012, "the court correctly inferred that he had been attacked because he had been a bother to Ford and his family," the statement of claim says.
The document also alleges that Ford, Aboodowleh and one of the football players, Aedan Petros, conspired together and with others "to arrange for the attack on the plaintiff and to cause him serious harm."
The lawsuit is seeking $1 million in general and special damages from each of the defendants, as well as additional aggravated, punitive and penal damages from them.

•