More search warrants surface in Mayor Rob Ford probe
Toronto police investigators have obtained seven new search warrants in relation to the Project Brazen 2 investigation of Mayor Rob Ford and others.
The new warrants, which were granted by a provincial court judge between October 2013 and January 2014, include authorizations for police to obtain call records from Bell, Rogers, Telus and Wind Mobile.
The Star does not know what police sought or are seeking with these warrants, but they were included on a chronological list of judicial authorizations handed over Tuesday in Superior Court where the Star and other media is seeking public access to the documents. They could relate to call records for Ford’s cell phones or others targeted by the investigation.
Justice Ian Nordheimer agreed to lift the sealing orders on the warrants, including one granted on Nov. 29 and another granted on Jan. 14 to obtain telephone records from Rogers. But the unsealed documents will be made available only to provincial and federal crown attorneys for the time being so that they can determine whether redactions are necessary before the materials are released publicly.
Lawyers for the Star and other media will appear again before Justice Nordheimer on March 5 to make arguments for the public release of the search warrants.
“We had a productive meeting with the provincial and federal crowns and they are going to review the materials between now and March 5 and we’re hopeful we’re working toward an early resolution of these issues,” said Ryder Gilliland, a lawyer representing the Star.
The Star and other media are also seeking access to three additional search warrants referenced in a 500-page request made last October by police to search the home of Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, the mayor’s friend and occasional driver, who the Star has reported told people he had supplied drugs to Ford. Those search warrant applications targeted Lisi’s vehicles and his cellphone records, among other things.
Lisi is currently facing drug charges and an extortion charge related to attempts to obtain the now infamous “crack video” featuring Ford.
The seven new search warrants disclosed by the crown Tuesday are included on a list of all judicial authorizations granted to police dating back to June 2013. The warrants — all subject to sealing orders — show that the investigation of the mayor and several of his associates has continued in earnest since police filed their application to search Lisi’s home last October.
On Oct. 9, just seven days after police applied to search Lisi’s home, a judge granted a request to search Lisi’s iPhone.
On Oct. 21, police obtained an assistance order for Apple Inc.
More than a month later, on Nov. 29, police obtained a search warrant for “7 cell phones and 1 computer from Traveller.” Project Traveller was a massive year-long guns-and-gangs operation in northern Etobicoke.
It was in early 2013 when detectives working on Project Traveller heard wiretap conversations between alleged gangsters talking about the mayor smoking drugs and appearing in a video in which Ford appears to be smoking crack cocaine. Project Brazen 2, the probe of the mayor and several of his associates, is a spinoff of Project Traveller.
The final four warrants on the list disclosed Tuesday are for production orders for Bell, Rogers, Telus and Wind.
