UPDATED: Rob Ford’s ex-brother-in-law is suing the mayor over a jailhouse beatdown

UPDATED: Rob Ford’s ex-brother-in-law is suing the mayor over a jailhouse beatdown

(Image: Christopher Drost)

Scott MacIntyre, the former spouse of Rob Ford’s sister Kathy Ford, has filed a lawsuit in which he accuses the mayor of having orchestrated a beating at the Toronto West Detention Centre. The assault left MacIntyre with a broken leg and smashed teeth.

According to the Globe, the leader of the assault was Aedan Petros, a 22-year-old man who was once a defensive tackle for the Don Bosco Eagles, a high school football team Ford coached before he was banned from doing so in May. Reporters who have seen MacIntyre’s statement of claim say it alleges that the infamous video (below) in which Ford threatens to “kill that fucking guy” and “make sure he’s fucking dead” is actually footage of the mayor discussing what he’d like to do to MacIntyre.

MacIntyre was in jail as a result of a January 2012 incident that involved the mayor. The reported version of events has MacIntyre walking into Ford’s home and screaming about debts supposedly owed to him by members of the Ford family. After he left the mayor’s house, MacIntyre was reportedly found by police in a Mississauga motel room with a few grams of heroin and cocaine in a nightstand. He was arrested. MacIntyre had previously been convicted of drug trafficking, and in 2005 was accused of shooting Kathy Ford in the face, though the charges were later dropped. Kathy Ford herself has a much-publicized history of narcotics abuse. The mayor’s own record of drug use is better known.

At MacIntyre’s sentencing hearing, a judge speculated that the assault was retaliation for MacIntyre’s having been “a bother to Mr. Ford.” MacIntyre now tells the Globe: “They wanted to know if I was going to do the right thing—was I going to keep my mouth shut.” (In his statement of claim, MacIntyre says he had threatened to go public with details about Ford’s ties to the drug world.) In addition to the mayor, the lawsuit names Aedan Petros, the Ministry of Correctional Services and others as defendants.

Ford specifically denied involvement in the beating during an interview with the Sun’s Joe Warmington, published, coincidentally, earlier today. This afternoon at city council’s budget meeting, the mayor was spotted huddling with Dennis Morris, his criminal defence attorney, while an official debate about the city’s budget was happening in the same room (see below). Morris has told reporters that the allegations against Ford are “without fact or foundation.”

 

UPDATE: The Star now reports that the other person named as a defendant in the lawsuit is Payman Aboodowleh, a man with a history of criminal violence who helped Rob Ford coach Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School’s football team. MacIntyre alleges that the video of Ford issuing death threats was shot at Aboodowleh’s house.

MacIntyre is seeking $1.2 million in damages from each of the parties he’s suing, for a total of $3.6 million.