Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's occasional driver Alexander Lisi walks through the Eaton Centre shopping mall after he left the courtroom after being granted bail on drug charges in Toronto, Wednesday October 2, 2013.Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press
Information gathered by Toronto police to obtain search warrants in the arrest of Alessandro Lisi, Mayor Rob Ford's friend and occasional driver, will be turned over to lawyers representing media outlets on Monday.
The information will not be public then. Mr. Justice Ian Nordheimer of the Ontario Superior Court must still decide what details from the roughly 480-page document should be released to the media.
Lawyer Peter Jacobsen, who is representing The Globe and Mail and other media organizations, noted in court Friday that the police information in this case is "extraordinarily long." Typically, search-warrant information for smaller drug matters is three to four pages, Mr. Jacobsen said.
A lawyer representing the Toronto Star urged Judge Nordheimer against unnecessary delays in dealing with the media's request, arguing the public is entitled to learn about the extent to which the mayor may be involved in the Lisi case.
Mr. Lisi, 35, was charged on Oct. 1 with trafficking in marijuana, possession of marijuana, possession of proceeds of crime, and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. A second man, dry cleaner Jamshid Bahrami, was also charged.
Mr. Lisi's arrest is part of a broader police investigation launched after detectives came across unexpected information during Project Traveller, a different probe of a drug-dealing street gang that culminated with multiple arrests in Toronto, Windsor and Edmonton in mid-June.
Toronto police have placed its most seasoned detectives on the investigation, called Project Brazen 2. Detective Sergeant Gary Giroux and Detective Joyce Schertzer of the homicide squad are part of a team examining at least two individuals close to Mayor Ford. Detective Schertzer was in court Friday to observe the court proceedings.
Mr. Lisi, has been under increasing police scrutiny since two media outlets – The Toronto Star and the U.S. gossip website Gawker – reported in May that drug dealers tried to sell them a video that purportedly shows the mayor smoking crack cocaine.
Reporters with the media organizations watched the alleged video, but it has not surfaced publicly. Mr. Ford has called into question the existence of the video and has denied using crack cocaine.
Mr. Ford has come to the defence of Mr. Lisi, calling him a "good guy" and "on the straight and narrow" a day after his October arrest. The mayor also wrote a character reference letter in June praising Mr. Lisi's "tact and diplomacy" and "courteous and polite manner." The letter, printed on the mayor's official City of Toronto letterhead, was part of a pre-sentence report in Mr. Lisi's conviction for threatening to kill an ex-girlfriend.
In that report, prepared a month after news of the alleged video emerged, Mr. Lisi, a high-school dropout, told a provincial probation and parole officer his future plans included working for the City of Toronto "with the endorsement of his 'close friend,' Mayor Robert Ford."
The mayor has faced persistent questions about the people he associates with. In a photo provided to the Star and Gawker by the video peddlers, Mr. Ford is shown posing with two men arrested in the Project Traveller gang and drug probe. Another man in the photo, Anthony Smith, was shot dead outside a downtown Toronto nightclub in March. The photo was taken in front of an Etobicoke bungalow that has been linked to drug activity.
Sources close to the mayor's office have told The Globe that Toronto police have interviewed at least five former staffers in the mayor's office about attempts by people to retrieve the alleged video. Some of the questions police asked, according to the sources, focused on Mr. Lisi.
Mr. Lisi has a long history of drug dealing in central Etobicoke, according to seven sources interviewed by The Globe who said they've either purchased marijuana or cocaine from Mr. Lisi or witnessed him supplying people with illegal drugs.
In court Friday, associate chief federal prosecutor Tom Andreopoulos argued at least one or two people mentioned in the police information gathered in Mr. Lisi's recent arrest should be considered innocent parties and should be given the opportunity to have a say before the judge decides whether to release details connected to them.
Mr. Lisi is being represented by lawyer Seth Weinstein, who is a partner in the office of Brian Greenspan, a prominent criminal defence lawyer. The matter returns to court Oct. 30.