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TORONTO – Toronto mayor Rob Ford‘s legal woes just got worse.
Ford’s brother-in-law, Scott MacIntyre, has slapped him with a civil lawsuit in which he alleges the embattled politician ordered a jailhouse beating to stop him talking about crack cocaine use, alcohol abuse and criminal associations.
Also named in the lawsuit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Wednesday is Payman Aboodowler, an assistant coach of a Toronto high school football team that Ford once coached, and Aedan Petros, a player on the team.
MacIntyre, who filed the statement of claim, is a former common-law partner of Ford’s sister, Kathy Ford.
MacIntyre in the lawsuit indicates he was jailed at the Toronto West Detention Center after uttering a threat against mayor Ford outside his home on January 11, 2012, as part of a family altercation.
“As he was leaving, he (MacIntyre) stated to Ford 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 suit states.
After MacIntyre wrote to Kathy Ford from jail, the statement of claim alleges Ford became “highly agitated” that his brother-in-law would go public with his drug and alcohol abuse.
“In particular, as set out below, Ford and Aboodowler conspired to have the plaintiff threatened, and subsequently brutally beaten, while he was incarcerated in MWDC,” the lawsuit adds.
That alleged meeting was apparently captured in an infamous Rob Ford video where a ranting mayor threatened to “kill” and “murder” an unidentified person.
“I was very, very inebriated,” Ford told reporters at City Hall after the video came to light on the Toronto Star newspaper website.
Once in jail, MacIntyre claims he was threatened by other inmates to “keep his mouth shut” and “do the right thing,” or face retribution.
The statement of claim alleges that, on March 22, 2012, Petros and “unknown inmate or inmates” attacked MacIntyre outside the jailhouse shower facility and left him with serious injuries, including a fractured leg and knocked out teeth.
None of the allegations in the civil suit about Ford conspiring to arrange the jailhouse beating have been proven in court.
Ford’s lawyer, Dennis Morris, told reporters the allegations in the lawsuit were “without fact or foundation.”
The incidents described in the lawsuit took place before the Toronto mayor became a worldwide media sensation and the butt of jokes by late night TV in the U.S. for admitting to smoking crack cocaine and binge drinking while in office.
Despite having had virtually all of his political stripped by fellow councilors at City Hall, Ford is running for re-election later this year.
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